different between shapeless vs clownish

English

shape +? -less

shapeless (comparative more shapeless, superlative most shapeless)

From clown +? -ish.

clownish (comparative more clownish, superlative most clownish)

Resembling or characteristic of a circus clown; comical, ridiculous.
- 1998, Bryan Senn, Drums of Terror: Voodoo in the Cinema
  Even worse, the zombies' clownish makeup, with a stark white base and black shoe polish around the eyes, looks amateurish.
- 2014, Jacob Steinberg, "Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals", The Guardian, 9 March 2014:
  Once again, City's defending was clownish. James McArthur drove into the area on the left and pulled a low cross towards the far post, where the horribly timid Gaël Clichy allowed Perch to bundle the ball past Costel Pantilimon.
- 2005, Laura Barton, The Guardian, 14 May 2005:
  Indeed, when in close quarters to Rooney, it must prove almost irresistible to stick a plastic moustache and silly clownish shoes on the potato-headed fool.
(now rare) Pertaining to peasants; rustic.
(now rare) Uncultured, boorish; rough, coarse.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.1:
  Large were his limbes, and terrible his looke, / And in his clownish hand a sharp bore speare he shooke.
- 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, Volume I, Chapter 4:
  "He is very plain, undoubtedly—remarkably plain:—but that is nothing compared with his entire want of gentility. I had no right to expect much, and I did not expect much; but I had no idea that he could be so very clownish, so totally without air. I had imagined him, I confess, a degree or two nearer gentility."

Send