carnival — ozdic

Collocations

5

ADJ.

all, annual, century-old, finished, live, local, north

The annual carnival in our town always brings families together for a week of fun.

VERB + CARNIVAL

don't, enjoy, going, involving, like, part, snow, went

We enjoyed going to the carnival last summer and won prizes at the game booths.

CARNIVAL + NOUN

brazil, carnies, cologne, events, people, saturday, tom, tonight

The carnival events in our town always draw huge crowds every spring.

PREP.

in, in, with

We dressed up in colorful costumes and danced at the carnival all night long.

ADV.

already

The carnival had already started when we arrived at the fairground.

Definitions

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

A gaudily chaotic situation.

a carnival of idiocy

verb

1

To 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.

name

1

The season just before the beginning of the Western Christian season of Lent.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

noun — a traveling show

fair
funfair

noun — a frenetic disorganized (and often comic) disturbance sugges

circus

Antonyms

Idioms & Phrases

Example Bank

6

01

Carnival of Brazil

Wiktionary

02

Venice Carnival

Wiktionary

03

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 shiver

Wiktionary

04

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

Wiktionary

05

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 though

Wiktionary

06

A sudden bright white flash exploded before me. A kaleidoscope of silver lines drawn in rapid succession carnivalled in a blizzard of raging energy.

Wiktionary

Usage Notes

i Register

In some senses, carnival is marked as figuratively, informal, literary, US, rare. Watch for register when choosing this word.