ETYM Italian caricatura, from caricare to charge, overload, exaggerate. Related to Charge.
A representation of a person that is exaggerated for comic effect; SYN. imitation, impersonation.
In the arts or literature, an exaggerated portrayal of an individual or type, aiming to ridicule or otherwise expose the subject. Classical and medieval examples of pictorial caricatures survive. Artists of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries have often used caricature as a way of satirizing society and politics. Notable exponents include the French artist Honoré Daumier and the German George Grosz. In literature, caricatures have appeared since the comedies of Aristophanes in ancient Greece. Shakespeare and Dickens were adept at creating caricatures.
Grotesque drawings have been discovered in Pompeii and Herculaneum, and Pliny refers to a grotesque portrait of the poet Hipponax.
Humorous drawings were executed by the Carracci family and their Bolognese followers (the Italian “eclectic” school of the 16th century). In 1830, Charles Philipon (1800–1862) founded in Paris La Caricature, probably the first periodical to specialize in caricature.

To represent in or produce a caricature of; SYN. ape.