| Augustan |
of or relating to a neoclassic period, esp. the eighteenth century in England and its literature. [1/3 definitions] |
| Brobdingnag |
in Jonathan Swift's eighteenth-century novel Gulliver's Travels, a land inhabited by giants. |
| chaconne |
a slow, formal dance of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries having its origins in Spain or Latin America, or the music composed for such a dance. [1/2 definitions] |
| chinoiserie |
(sometimes cap.) an intricate, elaborate style of decoration using Chinese motifs, esp. in eighteenth-century Europe. [1/2 definitions] |
| Chippendale |
of, pertaining to, or denoting an eighteenth-century English style of furniture marked by graceful lines and, often, rococo decoration. |
| classical |
of or pertaining to formal, composed music of the European tradition and especially to the form of this music originating in the eighteenth century. (Cf. popular, folk.) [1/4 definitions] |
| commedia dell'arte |
a type of Italian comedy developed in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries in which masked players depicted stereotyped characters in stock situations. |
| conversation piece |
an eighteenth-century genre picture that depicts a group of fashionable people in an appropriate setting. [1/2 definitions] |
| divertimento |
a light instrumental chamber composition with several short movements, usu. written in the eighteenth century. |
| dragoon |
a heavily armed cavalryman of seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe. [1/3 definitions] |
| Early Modern English |
the spoken and written English of about the mid-fifteenth to mid-eighteenth centuries. |
| enlightenment |
(cap.) an eighteenth century philosophical movement that emphasized the use of reason. [1/2 definitions] |
| fortepiano |
an eighteenth-century version of the pianoforte, having a smaller keyboard and more delicate sound. |
| Friday |
in the eighteenth-century novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, Crusoe's devoted servant. [1/2 definitions] |
| frigate |
a fast, medium-sized, armed sailing vessel used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. [1/2 definitions] |
| Great Vowel Shift |
a series of shifts in English vowel sounds that took place from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century and changed the vowel system of Middle English into that of Modern English. |
| Hammurabi |
a king and lawgiver of Babylonia (about the eighteenth century B.C.). |
| harlequin |
(often cap.) a clown in Italian popular comedy of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, traditionally masked and dressed in multicolored diamond-patterned tights. [1/3 definitions] |
| Hasid |
a member of a Jewish sect, founded in Poland in the eighteenth century, that emphasizes strict adherence to ritual and joyful worship of God. |
| Hepplewhite |
of or concerning a furniture style of late eighteenth-century Europe and America, featuring graceful curves. |
| hoop skirt |
a long, full skirt, fashionable in the eighteenth century, that was made to bell out by hoops worn beneath. |