antic

1. (architecture, art, obsolete) A grotesque representation of a figure; a gargoyle.obsolete

2. (often in the plural) A ludicrous gesture or act; ridiculous behaviour; caper.Examples: "I'm fed up with your constant antics in class. Please behave yourself!"; "Two sets of manners, could the youth put on; / And, fraught with antics as the Indian bird / That writhes and chatters in her wiry cage, / Was graceful, when it pleased him, smooth and still / As the mute Swan that floats adown the stream, […]"; "The woman opened the cover now and then, whereupon the kitten would put out its head, and indulge in playful antics."in-pluraloften

1. (intransitive) To perform antics, to caper.Examples: "Jerry no more than cocked a contemptuous quizzical eye at the mainsail anticking above him. He knew already the empty windiness of its threats, but he was careful of the mainsheet blocks, and walked around the traveller instead of over it."intransitive

2. (obsolete) To make a fool of, to cause to look ridiculous.Examples: "Gentle lords, let's part; / You see we have burnt our cheeks: strong Enobarb / Is weaker than the wine; and mine own tongue / Splits what it speaks: the wild disguise hath almost / Antick'd us all."; "Whether one's surroundings were anticked up or not, one often felt one was living in another century at Roque."; "Surtees became a friend of Walter Scott and played a very "anticking" joke upon the author."obsolete

3. (transitive, rare) To perform (an action) as an antic; to mimic ridiculously.Examples: "She unfastened her dress, her arms arched thin and high, her shadow anticking her movements."raretransitive

1. (animation) A pose, often exaggerated, in anticipation of an action; for example, a brief squat before jumping