noun
Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
A festive occasion marked by parades and sometimes special foods and other entertainment.
(US) A traveling amusement park, called a funfair in British English.
(sociology) A context in which transgression or inversion of the social order is given temporary license. Derived from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin.
(figurative) A gaudily chaotic situation.
verb
(informal, rare) To participate in a carnival.
(literary) To move about playfully or wildly.