farce Definition
farce (färs)
noun
- Now Rare stuffing, as for a fowl
- an exaggerated comedy based on broadly humorous, highly unlikely situations
- broad humor of the kind found in such plays
- something absurd or ridiculous, as an obvious pretense his show of grief was a farce
Etymology: Fr, stuffing, hence farce < VL *farsa < pp. of L farcire, to stuff: early farces were used to fill interludes between acts
transitive verb farced, farc′·ing
to fill out with or as with stuffing or seasoning to farce a play with old jokes
farce Synonyms
farce
n.
farce Usage Examples
Preposition: of
- game: The Clarets duly took part in this farce of a game in 1974 against Leicester City having lost to Newcastle in the semi-final.
- election: The same assurances could be made by big business in this country in the run-up to a farce of an election on 7 June.
Converse of object
- become: The campaign became a farce from that point on.
- write: Gogol, described as " the Russian Dickens " , wrote this monumental farce about human greed and folly in 1835.
- end: End the farce of half a dozen agencies all spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on problem families.
- make: Actors wanted who can make a farce out of the police.
- have: We hope soon to have another farce from the same author.
- do: The producer was the most unlikely man to do a comedy farce.
Adjective modifier
- knockabout: It can be played successfully for knockabout farce, sweet sentimentality or dark irony.
- hilarious: Kafka's hilarious farces would be packing the West End.
- tragic: This tragic farce was alleviated by the administrative creativity of Lieutenant-Colonel Davidson.
- utter: Mr Bradley said, " It was a complete and utter farce.
- pure: With its charming final reunions evading any profound questions about the nature of identity, this Comedy was pure farce.
- classic: The cast, for all their virtues, unfortunately failed to extract the full humor of this classic farce.
Noun used with modifier
- comedy: The producer was the most unlikely man to do a comedy farce.
- bedroom: Although the degeneration of the Clinton administration into a bedroom farce will make the situation worse, it is not the fundamental cause.
- sex: Bo Derek's appearance in the popular sex farce shot her to instant stardom and status as a sex symbol.
- police: We meant of course that Mr Nicolme is a detective in the police farce.
- slapstick: In a few hours they are to launch their provincial tour of " Nothing On, " a slapstick farce.
- stage: A slow-paced fantasy comedy, reminiscent of the early Aldwych stage farces.

