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anticlimactic

   Also found in: Hutchinson 0.02 sec.
an·ti·cli·max  (nt-klmks, nt-)
n.
1. A decline viewed in disappointing contrast with a previous rise: the anticlimax of a brilliant career.
2. Something trivial or commonplace that concludes a series of significant events: After a week of dramatic negotiations, all that followed was anticlimax.
3. A sudden descent in speaking or writing from the impressive or significant to the ludicrous or inconsequential, or an instance of it: "Waggish non-Yale men never seem weary of calling 'for God, for Country and for Yale' the outstanding single anticlimax in the English language" (Time).

anti·cli·mactic (-kl-mktk) adj.
anti·cli·macti·cal·ly adv.
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Adj.1.anticlimactic - of or relating to a sudden change from an impressive to a ludicrous style
2.anticlimactic - coming after the climax especially of a dramatic or narrative plot; "everything after the discovery of the murderer was anticlimactic"
climactic - consisting of or causing a climax; "a climactic development"


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The anticlimactic delay came before a packed court room, including family, friends and former city and state officials who came to witness the punishment phase in the bill padding scandal that grew out of a sweeping investigation into City Hall corruption.
A section of letters that close the tale, revealing the characters' fates after Elisa's family flees the perceived danger of Cayuta for Hitler's Germany, is almost entirely anticlimactic and leaches the tension from the story.
The closest we usually come today is in the anticlimactic denouements of home-makeover shows.
 
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