How to Use clownish in a Sentence

clownish

adjective
  • The Sox will show promise one day and look clownish the next.
    — Paul Sullivan, chicagotribune.com, 28 June 2018
  • Trump has had some clownish lawyers over the years, but Necheles was dead serious.
    — Eric Lach, The New Yorker, 3 May 2024
  • And a lot of us wouldn’t be seen dead on a scooter, the clownish version of a Segway.
    — Joe Queenan, WSJ, 7 June 2019
  • Switcheroo is all snappy disco, clownish house, and musical sight gags.
    — Pitchfork, 4 Dec. 2025
  • The combo together ensures that the lip doesn't look clownish.
    — Sarah Hoffmann, Allure, 3 Oct. 2025
  • How low had Russia’s name sunk in the West, if clownish tricks like this were being played on us here?
    — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, National Review, 17 Nov. 2020
  • Everyone wants to see this clownish, larger-than-life villain.
    — Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 Oct. 2024
  • That’s when the descriptions of the clownish gunman surfaced.
    — Nate Gartrell, The Mercury News, 9 Aug. 2024
  • See below for several impressive takes on the equal parts chic and clownish makeup trend.
    — Kelsi Zimmerman, Marie Claire, 23 May 2017
  • No one had noticed it, despite the animal’s clownish, grimy appearance and weak leg.
    — Flora Cassen, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Mar. 2023
  • The cast of challengers included clownish pretenders and tired retreads.
    — Steve Lopez Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep. 2021
  • David Larible invited crowd members to take part in his clownish antics.
    — Vincent Davis, ExpressNews.com, 14 Nov. 2020
  • Lynch plays Dahmer as a high school senior, weird and clownish, but part of a group of friends that reveled in his oddities.
    — Courtney Devores, charlotteobserver, 28 June 2017
  • In part, because there was something fascinating about the clownish way their once cutting-edge images no longer fit.
    — Indiewire Staff, IndieWire, 16 Aug. 2025
  • The kind that found its zenith in Todd Phillips’ 2019 take on Batman’s clownish foe.
    — Manuel Betancourt, Los Angeles Times, 12 Apr. 2024
  • Officials there tried to insulate themselves from what many saw as a clownish scheme unbound from law and evidence.
    — Maggie Haberman, New York Times, 8 Mar. 2024
  • All the forces and clownish figures of the moment, from Howard Stern to Al Sharpton, weighed in.
    — Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 12 Jan. 2026
  • This sugar plum pays his good fortune forward every day with whipping full-body tail wags, snuggles and clownish antics that make our house merry again.
    — Kitson Jazynka, chicagotribune.com, 18 Oct. 2019
  • The Rays’ strategy wasn’t quite clownish or burlesque, and there might actually be something to it.
    — Emma Baccellieri, SI.com, 4 July 2018
  • With clownish red lips, ears pointing straight out, eyes fixed in a dazed stare and hands outstretched, the figurines were grotesque caricatures of Black men.
    — Makeda Easter Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 27 July 2021
  • So will Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ clownish father, who needs his Twitter account burned alive at the stake.
    — Michael Arceneaux, The Root, 20 Oct. 2017
  • The gray facemask, the clownish sleeve striping, the pointless jersey side panels, the embarrassing pants striping—what a mess.
    — Paul Lukas, SI.com, 29 Sep. 2019
  • By the end of the video, Cat and her friends dramatically lose the clown ‘fits and enjoy their fast-food meal outside the restaurant and in their clownish car.
    — Tomás Mier, Rolling Stone, 10 Feb. 2022
  • This wasn’t the Djokovic who’d been such an joyous treat in his prime—a superstar capable of being chatty and funny and clownish, even on the court.
    — Jason Gay, WSJ, 12 July 2018
  • Martin showed that even a clownish gentleman with a pure heart could woo someone like Tisha Campbell’s Gina.
    — Jordan Hoffman, Entertainment Weekly, 8 June 2026
  • At some point, people may have considered my choice of makeup or hair to be clownish — now, experimenting with beauty is encouraged.
    — Jessica Cohen, refinery29.com, 27 Jan. 2021
  • Those long familiar with Pratt’s clownish agent-of-chaos persona both onscreen and on their social feeds may find his latest role disorienting.
    — Gary Baum, HollywoodReporter, 16 Oct. 2025
  • There is no respectable way to argue otherwise, which is the main reason that Trump’s version of Option B looks so clownish.
    — Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 25 Nov. 2020
  • The guy is just too clownish to be taken seriously, as Lucia recently demonstrated.
    — Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 9 June 2010
  • Giving up after 146 years because it’s been surpassed by the much-more-thrilling and clownish Washington circus.
    — Kevin Cusick, Twin Cities, 16 Jan. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'clownish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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