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irony
irony
The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English
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2009
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© The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 2009, originally published by Oxford University Press 2009. (Hide copyright information)
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i·ro·ny1
/ ˈīrənē; ˈiərnē/
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n.
(pl. -nies)
the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect:
“Don't go overboard with the gratitude,” he rejoined with heavy irony.
∎
a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result:
the irony is that I thought he could help me.
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(also dra·mat·ic or trag·ic i·ro·ny)
a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.
i·ro·ny2
/ ˈīərnē/
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adj.
of or like iron:
an irony gray color.
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Irony in action: anthropology, practice, and the moral imagination. .(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute; 6/1/2003; ; 700+ words
; ...difficulties of detecting and deploying irony in power-laden language games...Scoggin lays out three levels of irony, each shot through wi th issues...reflection on the (wider) ironies of ethnographic practice. More...orientated pieces emphasize irony's non-humorous aspects...
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Irony on the rise
Magazine article from: The Village Voice; 1/2/2001; ; 700+ words
; ...That's almost double the irony quotient that Times readers were treated to in 1980. Irony at the Times can be "dark...but there are no smaA ironies and never enough. Long a staple of the arts coverage, irony has been quietly implemented...
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Irony's Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony.
Magazine article from: World Literature Today; 1/1/1996; ; 700+ words
; ...and interpretation. Irony "happens" by inferring...illuminating examples are ironies resulting from the author...Hutcheon shows how irony happens between both...respond with profound irony through double evaluations...because of the complex ironies evoked, while it is...
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 "Mosaic (Winnipeg)")
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Irony, Deception, and Political Culture in the Works of Dmitri Shostakovich.
Magazine article from: Mosaic (Winnipeg); 12/1/1999; ; 700+ words
; ...Shostakovich's use of irony, showing how the extreme...how a perception of the ironies built into his works...its pursuers. In The Irony Tower, Andrew Solomon...seldom needs to search for ironies in Moscow; more often...in the production of irony. It is hardly surprising...
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Irony/humor in the fast lane: the route to desire in 'L'Abbe C.'
Magazine article from: The Romanic Review; 3/1/1994; ; 700+ words
; ...intention suggests the presence of a certain "irony" (or "humor" as shall become clear...order to make my use of these two terms, "irony" and "humor" clear, and in order to...Bataille's profound and idiosyncratic use of irony (and humor) in the context of existing...
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 "The Economist (US)")
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BRITISH IRONY: A quiet joke at your expense.
Magazine article from: The Economist (US); 12/18/1999; 700+ words
; Is the British penchant for irony a cause or cure of national decline...locals: "You see they have no sense of irony." The Victorian forebears of today...but for today's diplomats, it is irony, or the lack of it, which seems to...
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From irony to affiliation in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.
Magazine article from: CRITIQUE: Studies in Contemporary Fiction; 9/22/2003; ; 700+ words
; ...what Lois Feuer describes as "the irony of the 'woman's culture' [becoming...most often they mean the structural irony or ironies of the novel, exemplified by its...5) without mentioning "verbal irony" as a linguistic term. Lee Briscoe...
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IRONY'S DEATH GREATLY EXAGGERATED THE ONION, PEELING AWAY LAYERS OF GRAVITY, PURSUES A SERIOUS MISSION OF POKING FUN
Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe; 9/29/2001; ; 700+ words
; ...heavy breathing lately about the death of irony in the wake of Sept. 11. No less than...I think it's the end of the age of irony. Things that were considered fringe and...it could spell the end of the age of irony. For some 30 years - roughly as long as...
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Reading Arne Garborg's Irony.(Critical Essay)
Magazine article from: Scandinavian Studies; 3/22/2000; ; 700+ words
; ...some of the subsequent implications for the study of irony, and in particular irony as associated with three of Arne Garborg's novels...intentionalism replicates itself in the theory of irony, I will first briefly discuss some of the more significant...
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Nina Ekstein. Corneille's Irony.(Book review)
Magazine article from: Seventeenth-Century News; 9/22/2008; ; 700+ words
; ...Nina Ekstein. Corneille's Irony. Charlottesville: Rookwood...of [Pierre] Corneille's ironies (8), Nina Ekstein offers...From her brief overview of irony and its various components to...never dominating-place of irony in Corneille's theater and...
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IRONY
Book article from: Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language
IRONY. 1. In RHETORIC, words with an implication...t it?’ Expressions heavy with irony are often used to drive a point home...bells on ).’ In such usages, irony slides into sarcasm . 2. In general usage...
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irony
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
irony figure of speech in which what is stated is not what is meant. The user of irony assumes that his reader or listener understands...of his statement. Perhaps the simplest form of irony is rhetorical irony, when, for effect, a speaker...
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dramatic irony
Book article from: The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
dramatic irony, or tragic irony , a figure of speech in which what is said by the characters in a play has a different and more serious meaning to the audience who are more aware than are the characters concerned of the catastrophe which is either...
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tragic irony
Book article from: The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English
trag·ic i·ro·ny • n. see irony 1 .
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Oh The Irony
Book article from: Computer Sciences
Oh The Irony! Ironically, the transistor in John Bardeen's automatic garage door malfunctioned as he was preparing to leave for the press conference announcing he had won the Nobel Prize. He had to get a ride to the event.
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