Picaresque \Pic`a*resque"\, a. [F., fr. Sp. picaro rogue.] Applied to that class of literature in which the principal personage is the Spanish picaro, meaning a rascal, a knave, a rogue, an adventurer.
picaresque adj : involving clever rogues or adventurers especially as in a type of fiction; "picaresque novels"; "waifs of the picaresque tradition"; "a picaresque hero"