Arabesk, something done after the manner of the Arabians. Arabesque, Grotesque, and Moretique, are terms applied to such paintings, ornaments of friezes, &c. where there are no human or animal figures, but which consist wholly of imaginary foliage, plants, stalks, &c. The words take their rise from hence, that the Moors, Arabs, and other Mahometans, use these kind of ornaments; their religion forbidding them to make any images or figures of men or other animals.