/beuh rohk"/ ; Fr. /bann rddawk"/ , adj.
1. ( often cap. ) of or pertaining to a style of architecture and art originating in Italy in the early 17th century and variously prevalent in Europe and the New World for a century and a half, characterized by free and sculptural use of the classical orders and ornament, by forms in elevation and plan suggesting movement, and by dramatic effect in which architecture, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts often worked to combined effect.
2. ( sometimes cap. ) of or pertaining to the musical period following the Renaissance, extending roughly from 1600 to 1750.
3. extravagantly ornate, florid, and convoluted in character or style: the baroque prose of the novel's more lurid passages.
4. irregular in shape: baroque pearls.
n.
5. ( often cap. ) the baroque style or period.
6. anything extravagantly ornamented, esp. something so ornate as to be in bad taste.
7. an irregularly shaped pearl.
[ 1755-65; barroco, barroca irregularly shaped pearl (of obscure orig.; cf. Sp berrueco, barrueco granitic crag, irregular pearl, spherical nodule), prob. conflated with ML baroco invented word for a kind of obfuscating syllogism ]