Webster's English Dictionary

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caricature

car.ica.ture \'kar-i-k*-.chu.(*)r, -.t(y)u.(*)r\ \-*st\ n [It caricatura, 
   lit., act of loading, fr, caricare to load, fr. LL]carricare 1: 
   exaggeration by means of often ludicrous distortion of parts or characte 
   ristics 2: a representation esp. in literature or art that has the 
   qualities of car icature 3: a distortion so gross as to seem like 
   caricature  a comic or grotesque imitation. CARICATURE implies ludicrous 
   exaggeration of the characteristic features of a subject; BURLESQUE implies 
   mockery either through treating a trivial subject in a mock-heroic style or 
   through giving a serious or lofty subject a frivolous treatment; PARODY 
   applies esp. to treatment of a trivial or ludicrous subject in the exactly 
   imitated style of a well-known author or work; TRAVESTY implies that the 
   subject remains unchanged but that the style and effect is extravagant or 
   absurd - caricature vt SYN syn CARICATURE, BURLESQUE, PARODY, TRAVESTY mean