comical, a. (and n.)
(ˈkɒmɪkəl)
Also 5 comicalle, 6–7 -all, 6 commical, -ycal.
[f. as prec. + -al1.]
A. adj.
† 1. = comic 1. Obs.
With quot. 1432–50 cf. comic 1, quot. 1387.
| [1432–50 tr. Higden V. 321 Noble songes comicalle.] 1557 N. Grimalde Muses in Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 100 Delitefull talke loues Comicall Thaley. 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 84 One Plautus, a comicall poet. 1664 Duchess of Newcastle Soc. Lett. clxii, The third was our countryman Shakespear, for his comical and tragical humour. 1725 Gay What d'ye call it (ed. 4) Pref., As to the plot, they deny it to be tragical, because its catastrophe is a wedding, which hath ever been accounted comical. |
† 2. Of style, subject, etc.: Befitting comedy; trivial, mean, low; the opposite of tragical, elevated or dignified. Obs.
| 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretarie i. (1625) 10 Stile of Epistles..Humile, the lowest, comicall, and most simple of all others, the matter whereof is the meanest subject of any argument that may be..and is fittest appropriate to our familiar Letters. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. i. i. i. (1676) 255/1 That it is too light for a Divine, too Comical a subject to speak of Love-Symptoms. a 1674 Clarendon Surv. Leviath. (1676) 18 This Comical mention of the power and goodness of God..in a place so improper and unnatural for those reflexions. 1687 Settle Refl. Dryden 29 Surely the Laureat..has the lest and most Comical Notions of Kings that e're I met with. |
† b. Of persons: ? Low, mean, base, ignoble; or ? clownish. Obs.
| 1670 Penn Lib. Conscience Pref., When they had sacrificed their divine Socrates to the sottish fury of their lewd and commical multitude, they..regreeted their hasty murder. |
† 3. Like the conclusion of a comedy; happy or fortunate. (Opposed to tragical.) Obs.
| 1584 R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. iii. x. 44 A comicall catastrophe. 1588 Greene Perimedes 25 Fortune after so sharpe a Catastrophe, to induce a comicall conclusion, tempered hir storme with this pleasant calme. a 1627 Hayward (J.), That all might appear to be knit up in a comical conclusion, the duke's daughter was afterwards joined in marriage to the lord Lisle. 1650 Fuller Pisgah iv. ii. 36 But Comicall was the end of Job, and all things restored double to him. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iv. viii. 361 The Comical part of the Lives of Men are too full of Sin and Vanity, and the Tragical part thereof too full of Sin and Misery. |
4. Resembling comedy, mirth-provoking; humorous, jocose, funny; ludicrous, laughable. (Of persons and things.) The ordinary sense.
| 1685 J. Scott Chr. Life ii. 135 A man..may break jests upon pain, and entertain his company with comical Representations of the Groans and Agonies of dying. 1687 T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. I. 73 The oddest and most comical scene is still behind. 1776 Johnson in Boswell 15 May, But the dog [S. Foote] was so very comical, that I was obliged to throw myself back upon my chair and fairly laugh it out. 1887 J. A. L. Riley Athos. xiii, There was something extremely comical in the sight of the archbishop lying flat on his back. |
5. Queer, strange, odd. colloq.
| 1793 Ld. Sheffield in Ld. Auckland's Corr. II. 495 Opposition..seems suspended in a comical state. 1823 Scott Quentin D. xxxi, I think it likely he may grant thy request, though, by my honour, it is a comical one! 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. ii, And now it was all clear how he should have come from unknown parts, and be so ‘comical-looking’. 1888 W. Somerset Word-bk, Comical, (1) odd in appearance. |
b. = ‘Queer’ in the sense of ‘peculiar or disagreeable in temper or nature, difficult to deal with, awkward, troublesome, dangerous’. dial.
| a 1864 R. B. Peacock Lonsdale Gloss. (Philol. Soc.) Comical, ill-tempered. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Comical, (1) disagreeable, queer in temper..(2) bad, dangerous: said of roads. 1887 S. Chesh. Gloss., Comical, captious, hard to please. 1888 Sheffield Gloss., Comical, difficult, perplexing, ‘Wa, this is a comical job, ooever’. |
c. = ‘Queer’ in the sense of ‘strangely out of sorts, unwell, ill’. dial.
| 1884 Upton-on-Severn Gloss., Comical, unwell. ‘'E seemed that comical as 'e couldn't eat no fittle.’ 1889 Dorset dial. (fr. Correspt.), I be in a plain way: I do feel so comical in myself. 1889 Oxfordshire dial. (fr. Correspt.) I felt so comical, I thought I was going to die. |
B. n. A comical person. rare—1.
| 1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 253 All the comicals of Oxford brought together. |