anticlimax
(ˌæntɪˈklaɪmæks)
[anti- 2.]
1. Rhet. The opposite of climax: ‘a sentence in which the last part expresses something lower than the first’ J.; the addition of a particular which, instead of heightening the effect, suddenly lowers it or makes it ludicrous.
| 1727 Pope, etc. Art of Sinking 101 The Anti-Climax..‘And thou Dalhoussy the great God of war, Lieutenant colonel to the Earl of Mar.’ 1791 Boswell Johnson (1816) III. 418, I objected also to what appeared an anticlimax of praise. 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes (1850) 141/1 The stupendous silliness of certain stanzas with an anti-climax at the end of each. |
2. By extension: A descent or fall in contrast to a previous rise.
| 1858 Lewes Seaside Stud. 42, I think of the Hunter's finale as merely an extra dish, and pronounce that to be an anticlimax to his day's work. 1879 M{supc}Carthy Own Time II. xviii. 35 The later years of his life were only an anticlimax. |