carnival

nounverbcommon in dialogue

United Kingdom//ˈkɑːnɪvəl//
United Kingdom/[ˈkɑːnɪvl̩]/
United States//ˈkɑɹnɪvəl//
United States/[ˈkɑɹnɪvl̩]/

Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.

noun

1
Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
Carnival of Brazil
Venice Carnival
2
A festive occasion marked by parades and sometimes special foods and other entertainment.
Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.
3
A traveling amusement park, called a funfair in British English.
We all got to ride the merry-go-round when they brought their carnival to town.
When the carnival came to town, every one wanted some cotton candy.
4
A context in which transgression or inversion of the social order is given temporary license. Derived from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin.
The social environment contains the ambiguous traces of carnival: it resists the ideology of capitalism and, at the same time, reproduces the capitalist social order.
5
figurativeA gaudily chaotic situation.
a carnival of idiocy

Etymology

From Middle French carnaval, from Italian carnevale, possibly from the Latin phrase carnem levāmen (“meat dismissal”). Other scholars suggest Latin carnuālia (“meat-based country feast”) or carrus nāvālis (“boat wagon; float”) instead. Doublet of carnaval.

verb

1
informalTo participate in a carnival.
2
To move about playfully or wildly.
The spot is a marvel of beauty and taste; and here, where dust and sun carnivaled for so many years, thousands of every class congregate to listen each evening to music discoursed for the amusement of oi polloi.
Sitting in the Chevy, Saturday night on Main Street carnivaling around her, she told herself that she understood, that Ross had made a mistake, had pre-arranged this celebration for tonight and thought that his date with her was tomorrow.
A sudden bright white flash exploded before me. A kaleidoscope of silver lines drawn in rapid succession carnivalled in a blizzard of raging energy.

Forms

plural: carnivals
past tense: carnivaled, carnivalled
past participle: carnivaled, carnivalled
present participle: carnivaling, carnivalling
third person singular: carnivals

Carmine · A male given name from Italian.carnage · Death and destruction.Carnegie · A surname.

carnival · Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.

Carnival · The season just before the beginning of the Western Christian…carol · A ballad or song of joy.Carol · A female given name from the Germanic languages, popular in…

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