arch. [f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To turn into ridicule, to ridicule; to burlesque.
1638. Ford, Fancies, III. i. (R.). Who, in the great dukes court, buffoons his compliment.
a. 1672. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), II. 73. The Duke of Buckingham’s … farce … buffooning all plays.
1751. J. Brown, Shaftesb. Charac., 371. Buffooning and disgracing Christianity, from a false representation of its material part.
1836. Fraser’s Mag., XIV. 16. Having Polonius buffooned for him, and, to no small extent, Hamlet himself.
2. intr. To play the buffoon, to indulge in low jesting. Also To buffoon it.
1672. [see BUFFOONING vbl. sb.]
1820. Byron, in Moore, Life (1860), 434. Bankes and I … buffooned together very merrily.
1830. Fraser’s Mag., II. 180. He … buffooned it up to the bent.
1832. L. Hunt, Sir R. Esher (1850), 94. All dressed and talked and laughed and buffooned alike.
