3 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Satire \Sat"ire\ (?; in Eng. often ?; 277), n. [L. satira,
satura, fr satura (sc. lanx) a dish filled with various
kinds of fruits, food composed of various ingredients, a
mixture, a medley, fr satur full of food, sated, fr sat,
satis, enough: cf F. satire. See {Sate}, {Sad}, a., and cf
{Saturate}.]
1. A composition, generally poetical, holding up vice or
folly to reprobation; a keen or severe exposure of what in
public or private morals deserves rebuke; an invective
poem; as the Satires of Juvenal.
2. Keeness and severity of remark; caustic exposure to
reprobation; trenchant wit; sarcasm.
Syn: Lampoon; sarcasm; irony; ridicule; pasquinade;
burlesque; wit; humor.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
satire
n : witty language used to convey insults or scorn; "he used
sarcasm to upset his opponent"; "irony is wasted on the
stupid" [syn: {sarcasm}, {irony}, {caustic remark}]
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
SATIRE, n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the
vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with
imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a
sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we
are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it like all
humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans
are "endowed by their Creator" with abundant vice and folly, it is not
generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the
satirist is popularly regarded as a soul-spirited knave, and his ever
victim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent.
Hail Satire! be thy praises ever sung
In the dead language of a mummy's tongue,
For thou thyself art dead, and damned as well --
Thy spirit (usefully employed) in Hell.
Had it been such as consecrates the Bible
Thou hadst not perished by the law of libel.
Barney Stims
more about satire
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