The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
adj. Of or involving clever rogues or adventurers.
adj. Of or relating to a genre of usually satiric prose fiction originating in Spain and depicting in realistic, often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree living by his or her wits in a corrupt society.
adj. Characteristic of a genre of Spanish satiric novel dealing with the adventures of a roguish hero
n. A picaresque novel.
the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
adj. Applied to that class of literature in which the principal personage is the Spanish picaro, meaning a rascal, a knave, a rogue, an adventurer.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Pertaining to or dealing with rogues or picaroons: said of literary productions that deal with the fortunes of rogues or adventurers, and especially of works in Spanish literature about the beginning of the seventeenth century, of which “Guzman de Alfarache” was a type.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
adj. involving clever rogues or adventurers especially as in a type of fiction
Word Usage
"At the moment, she is writing "another book, which seems to be coming as a succession of chapters that feel like stories", and which she refers to as the picaresque life story of a spiky, bold girl."