[f. prec.] trans. To turn into ridicule by grotesque parody or imitation; to caricature, travesty.
1676. ‘A. Rivetus, Jr.,’ Mr. Smirke, i. It seem’d a piece of Wit … to Burlesque them in earnest.
a. 1764. Lloyd, Ep. Mr. Colman, Poet. Wks. 1774, I. 167. Ere I burlesqu’d the rural cit.
1804–6. Syd. Smith, Sk. Moral Philos., XI. 136. Cervantes has burlesqued the old romances.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 600. Prior burlesqued … the bombastic verses in which Boileau had celebrated the first taking of Namur.
b. intr.
1680. Du Moulin’s Adv. Ch. Eng. towards Rome, 31 (L.). Dr. Patrick joins hands with them in burlesquing upon the doctrine.
1683. trans. Erasmus’ Moriæ Enc., 27. The Poet shall be burlesqu’d upon with his own doggrel rythms.
