Definition of "grotesque"

grotesque

/ɡɹəʊˈtɛsk/

adjective
comparative grotesquer, superlative grotesquest
1. Distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal, especially in a hideous way.
  Quotations
  The chimney-piece was of party-coloured marble, covered with figures, some of whose faces were beautiful, but generally running off into those grotesque combinations which characterised the peculiar taste of their time.
  1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 114
  A Libyan longing took us, and we would have chosen, if we could, to bear a strand of grotesque beads, or a handful of brazen gauds, and traffic them for some sable maid with crisp locks, whom, uncoffling from the captive train beside the desert, we should make to do our general housework forever, through the right of lawful purchase.
  1912, The World's Wit and Humor, page 176
2. Disgusting or otherwise viscerally revolting.
3. (typography) Sans serif.
noun
countable and uncountable, plural grotesques
1. A style of ornamentation characterized by fanciful combinations of intertwined forms.
2. Anything grotesque.
  Quotations
  Obese and largely unintelligible, Don Vito represents a working-class white male grotesque, the picture of excess.
  2009, Emily Chivers Yochim, Skate Life, page 128
  He’s also the new character from Sacha Baron Cohen, the man behind Ali G, Borat and Brüno: that unholy trinity of comic grotesques that told us a lot more about ourselves than we’d like to admit.
  2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ' Sacha Baron Cohen's vital, venomous action movie'”, in The Daily Telegraph (London)
3. (typography) A sans serif typeface.