adjective
- in or of a style of painting, sculpture, etc. in which forms of persons and animals are intermingled as with foliage, flowers, or fruits in a fantastic or bizarre design
- characterized by distortions or striking incongruities in appearance, shape, or manner; fantastic; bizarre
- ludicrously eccentric or strange; ridiculous; absurd
Origin:
Fr < It grottesca (pittura), orig., (picture) in a cave < grotta, grotto: from resemblance to designs found in Roman caves