harlequinade

From French arlequinade.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /hɑːləkwɪˈneɪd/
• Rhymes: -eɪd

harlequinade (plural harlequinades)

1. A pantomime-like comedy featuring the harlequin or clown.
2. Any comical or fantastical procedure or playfulness.
   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 154:

     Away up the gorge all diurnal fancies trooped into the wide liberties of endless luminous vistas of azure sunlit mountains beneath the shining azure heavens, the ranges and valleys changing with every mood of the atmosphere, with the harlequinade of the clouds and the wind.

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