Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1500-1600
Language: French
Origin: Old Italian (pittura) grottesca 'cave painting', from grotta; GROTTO

grotesque

1 adjective
     
gro‧tesque1
1 unpleasant, shocking, and offensive:
It's grotesque to portray peace campaigners as unpatriotic.
By modern standards, the treatment of prisoners was grotesque.
2 extremely ugly in a strange or unnatural way:
a grotesque figure with a huge head
—grotesquely adverb
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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