Definition of "clown"

Over there in Norway, the churches all burn down / Let's go dress in goth clothes and get painted like a clown

2008, Lich King, “Black Metal Sucks”, in Toxic Zombie Onslaught

Everything’s on the table, the specs are there in the RFP and can’t be changed by some clown in the Air Force who happens to come up with a new idea.

2013, Kim Stanley Robinson, The Gold Coast: Three Californias (Wild Shore Triptych; 2)‎, Tom Doherty Associates, page 122

'Breaking my sister's heart then getting pissed with his mates in the very next pub while she's sobbing alone?' I dragged this clown away from the fruitie and back to Amy next door, running my mouth off at him as we went.

2017, Arron Crascall, See Ya Later: The World According to Arron Crascall

This loutish clown is such that you never saw so ill - favoured a vizar

a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the page number)”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912,

[…] three things ought always to be kept under: a mastiff dog, a stone horse and a clown; and really I think a snarling, cross-grained clown to be the most unlucky beast of three.

1700, Timothy Nourse, Campania Foelix, pages 15–16

The clown, the child of nature, without guile.

1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […]

He […] began to descend to familiar questions, endeavouring to accommodate his discourse to the grossness of rustic understandings. The clowns soon found that he did not know wheat from rye, and began to despise him; one of the boys, by pretending to show him a bird's nest, decoyed him into a ditch; […]

August 25, 1759, Samuel Johnson, The Idler No. 71

While the tomato clownfish Amphiprion frenatus has been spawned in captivity, wild-caught tomato clowns are more often seen for sale.

2006, Tropical Fish Hobbyist, volume 54, numbers 5-8, page 32

Except for Rasheena, the rest of the baby mamas was at least struggling to live halfway right. They used to clown and act shitty whenever they came by Noojie's and saw Carmiesha there. But every last one of them ended up being grateful to her for the things she did for their kids.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World/Ballantine Books, page 128

The show Dismissed was one of my favorites, because I like to see people get clowned.

2002, Vibe, volume 10, number 11, page 62

All my comrades were laughing and clowning me, but shit, that didn't stop me from talking more shit.

2017, Darrell Smith, Miracle Baby