travesty

English

Etymology

From French travesti (“disguised, burlesqued”), past participle of travestir (“to disguise”), borrowed from Italian travestire (“to dress up, disguise”), from tra- (“across”) +‎ vestire (“to dress”), from Latin vestiō (“to clothe, dress”), from Proto-Italic *westis (“clothing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéstis (“dressing”) from verbal root *wes- (“to dress, clothe”); cognate to English wear. Doublet of transvest.

Pronunciation

• enPR: trăvʹĭs-tē, trăvʹəs-tē, IPA^(key): /ˈtɹæv.ɪs.ti/, /ˈtɹæv.əs.ti/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: trav‧es‧ty

Noun

travesty (plural travesties)

1. An absurd or grotesque misrepresentation.
   • 1845, Thomas De Quincey, William Godwin:

     The second edition is not a recast, but absolutely a travesty of the first.

   • 2022 January 12, Dr. Joseph Brennan, “Castles: ruined and redeemed by rail”, in RAIL, number 948, page 56:

     In 1844, objection was raised to the Furness Railway's Dalton & Barrow line, when it was revealed that the line would pass directly through Furness Abbey. A re-route was achieved, with the line skirting the abbey ruins instead - although many continued to see the intrusion as a travesty against antiquity and the scenic beauty of the site.

2. A parody or stylistic imitation.
3. (derogatory) A grossly inferior imitation.

   A battlefield trial is a travesty of justice.

4. (colloquial, proscribed) An appalling version of something.
   • 2018 February 10, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham Hotspur 1 - 0 Arsenal”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     Spurs survived the scare - and such was their domination after the break that it would have been a travesty had Arsenal escaped Wembley, hosting a Premier League record attendance of 83,222, with a draw.

Synonyms

• caricature
• feign

Antonyms

• veracity

Related terms

Related terms

• transvestite
• vest
• vestry
• wear
• revetment
• trans-

Translations

An absurd or grotesque misrepresentation

• Bulgarian: изопачаване (bg) n (izopačavane)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 拙劣的模仿 (zhuōliède mófǎng, literally “clumsy imitation”)

• Czech: travestie f
• Faroese: avbronglan f, avskepling f, keipumynd f
• Finnish: irvikuva (fi)
• German: Zerrbild (de) n
• Hindi: विडंबना (hi) f (viḍambanā)
• Hungarian: megcsúfolás (hu), karikatúra (hu)
• Italian: farsa (it)
• Norwegian: karikatur m, parodi (no) m, komedie (no) m, farse m

A parody or stylistic imitation.

• Bulgarian: пародия (bg) f (parodija)
• Dutch: travestie (nl) f
• Faroese: herming f, keipuleikur m
• German: Farce (de) f, lächerliche Karikatur f, Travestie (de) f
• Hungarian: paródia (hu)
• Polish: trawestacja f

A grossly inferior imitation.

• German: armselige Karikatur f

See also

• farce

Verb

travesty (third-person singular simple present travesties, present participle travestying, simple past and past participle travestied)

1. (transitive) To make a travesty of; to parody.

Derived terms

• travestier

Further reading

• “travesty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “travesty”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “travesty”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “travesty”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.