TOP

Definition of farce noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

farce

noun
 
/fɑːs/
 
/fɑːrs/
[countable, uncountable]
jump to other results
  1. a funny play for the theatre based on silly and unlikely situations and events; this type of writing or performance
    • a bedroom farce (= a funny play about sex)
    Extra Examples
    • Farce is often looked down upon by serious theatre goers.
    • Feydeau's classic bedroom farce is set in turn-of-the-century Paris.
    Topics Film and theatrec2
  2. a situation or an event that is so unfair or badly organized that it becomes silly
    • The trial was a complete farce.
    Extra Examples
    • The debate degenerated into farce when opposing speakers started shouting at each other.
    • The whole procedure has become a complete farce.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • complete
    • total
    verb + farce
    • become
    • degenerate into
    • end in
    See full entry
  3. Word Originearly 16th cent.: from French, literally ‘stuffing’, from farcir ‘to stuff’, from Latin farcire. An earlier sense of ‘forcemeat stuffing’ became used metaphorically for comic interludes “stuffed” into the texts of religious plays, which led to the current usage.
See farce in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
previously
adverb
 
 
From the Word list
Oxford 3000
B1
Oxford Learner's Dictionaries Word of the Day