clownish

From clown +‎ -ish.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈklaʊnɪʃ/
• Rhymes: -aʊnɪʃ

clownish (comparative more clownish, superlative most clownish)

1. Resembling or characteristic of a circus clown; comical, ridiculous.
   • 1998, Bryan Senn, Drums of Terror: Voodoo in the Cinema:

     Even worse, the zombies' clownish makeup, with a stark white base and black shoe polish around the eyes, looks amateurish.

   • 2014 March 9, Jacob Steinberg, “Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals”, in The Guardian:

     Once again, City's defending was clownish. James McArthur drove into the area on the left and pulled a low cross towards the far post, where the horribly timid Gaël Clichy allowed Perch to bundle the ball past Costel Pantilimon.

   • 2005 May 14, Laura Barton, The Guardian:

     Indeed, when in close quarters to Rooney, it must prove almost irresistible to stick a plastic moustache and silly clownish shoes on the potato-headed fool.

2. (now rare) Pertaining to peasants; rustic.
3. (now rare) Uncultured, boorish; rough, coarse.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Large were his limbes, and terrible his looke, / And in his clownish hand a sharp bore speare he shooke.

   • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 4, in Emma: , volume I, London: for John Murray, →OCLC:

     "He is very plain, undoubtedly—remarkably plain:—but that is nothing compared with his entire want of gentility. I had no right to expect much, and I did not expect much; but I had no idea that he could be so very clownish, so totally without air. I had imagined him, I confess, a degree or two nearer gentility."