a. [f. L. lūdicr-us (app. evolved from the neut. sb. lūdicrum sportive performance, stage-play, f. lūdĕre to play) + -OUS.]
† 1. Pertaining to play or sport; sportive; intended in jest, jocular, derisive. Obs.
1619. Gataker, Lots, iii. 34. Easty onely maketh foure sorts; diuine…; diabolicall…; politicall…; ludicrous, for sport and pastime.
1653. Ashwell, Fides Apost., 25. Both in ludicrous toyes, as in Childrens sports, and in weightier matters.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., xiii. 44. But he rewarding my blind devotion with a ludicrous blessing and loud laughter, I presently found my errour.
1668–83. Owen, Expos. Heb. (1790), IV. 281. It is not a ludicrous contest that we are called to, but it is for our lives and souls.
1709. J. Johnson, Clergym. Vade M., II. 174 [trans. Canons of Carthage, lxvi]. If any one desire to forsake any Ludicrous Exercise [i.e., any theatrical or gladiatorial employment], and become a Christian.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Pope. The ‘Rape of the Lock’ … is universally allowed to be the most attractive of all ludicrous compositions.
† 2. Given to jesting; trifling, frivolous; also, in favorable sense, witty, humorous. Obs.
1687. H. More, Contr. Remark. Stor. (1689), 428. But to entangle things thus is an usual feat of these ludicrous Spirits.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 191, ¶ 7. Some ludicrous Schoolmen have put the Case, that if an Ass were placed between two Bundles of Hay [etc.].
1736. Butler, Anal., II. vi. Men may indulge a ludicrous turn so far as to lose all sense of conduct and prudence in worldly affairs.
1778. Bp. Lowth, Transl. Isa. (ed. 12), Notes 332. A heathen author, in the ludicrous way, has … given idolatry one of the severest strokes it ever received.
1792. Cowper, Let. to T. Park, 27 April. The man is as formidable for his ludicrous talent, as he has made himself contemptible by his use of it.
1827. Burton’s Anat. Mel. (ed. 13), Advt. 7. The ludicrous Sterne has interwoven many parts of it [Burton’s ‘Anatomy’] into his own popular performance.
3. Suited to occasion derisive laughter; ridiculous, laughably absurd. (The only current sense.)
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, II. iii. The ludicrous mixture of groups, kept her attention unwearied.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, VI. 64. How ludicrous the priest’s dogmatic roar!
1834. Macaulay, Pitt, Ess. (1887), 321. The Duke was in a state of ludicrous distress.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 380. Plato delights to exhibit them [Sophists] in a ludicrous point of view.
1898. F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ xxiii. (1900), 298. This subdivision was often carried to ludicrous lengths.
1901. N. Munro, in Blackw. Mag., May, 659/2. Count Victor stood before him a ludicrous figure.
4. absol. (in senses 2 and 3).
1798. Ferriar, Illustr. Sterne, i. 7. The ludicrous, by its nature, tends to exaggeration.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., iv. 36. The ludicrous has its place in the universe.
1884. Yates, Recoll., I. 67. A bright charming fellow,… with a real appreciation of the ludicrous.
