Travesty

//ˈtɹæv.ɪs.ti// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An absurd, grotesque, misrepresentative or grossly inferior likeness or imitation.

    "A battlefield trial is a travesty of justice."

  2. 2
    a composition that imitates or misrepresents somebody's style, usually in a humorous way wordnet
  3. 3
    A pastiche, parody, or stylistic imitation; a burlesque literary or artistic imitation (typically of a more serious work).
  4. 4
    a comedy characterized by broad satire and improbable situations wordnet
  5. 5
    An appalling event, situation or outcome (especially in relation to another outcome to which it is grossly inferior). proscribed, sometimes

    "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."

Verb
  1. 1
    To make a travesty of; to parody. transitive
  2. 2
    make a travesty of wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
caricaturefarceparodyaggrandizeaggrandizementagile wit

Example

More examples

"My brother's murderer got off with just a year in jail. If that's not a travesty of justice, I don't know what is!"

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 travesti.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.