/ klaʊn; NAmE / noun , verb
■ noun
1.
an entertainer who wears funny clothes and a large red nose and does silly things to make people laugh :
( figurative )
Robert was always the class clown (= he did silly things to make the other students laugh) .
2.
( disapproving ) a person that you disapprove of because they act in a stupid way :
What do those clowns in the government think they are doing?
■ verb
[ v ] clown (around) (often disapproving ) to behave in a silly way, especially in order to make other people laugh
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WORD ORIGIN
mid 16th cent. relating to an unsophisticated country person: perhaps of Low German origin.