In the Websters encyclopedia it was summed up as "theatrical entertainment of a broadly humorous often earthy character consisting of comic skits, striptease acts, and songs and dances performed by soloists or a chorus." Syn. Caricature

I also looked up the meaning and included it from Wikipedia.

BURLESQUE: meaning from Wikipedia
The genre's origins are rooted in the 1840s, early in the Victorian era, a time of culture clashes between the social rules of established aristocracy and a working-class society. The genre often mocked such established entertainment forms as opera, Shakespearean drama, musicals, and ballet. The costuming (or lack thereof) increasingly focused on forms of dress considered inappropriate for polite society.

By the 1880s, the genre had created some rules for defining itself:

Minimal costuming, often focusing on the female form.
Sexually suggestive dialogue, dance, plotlines and staging.
Quick-witted humor, lacking complexity.
Short routines or sketches, with minimal plot cohesion across a show.
In the 1930s, a social crackdown on burlesque shows led to their gradual downfall. The shows had slowly changed from ensemble ribald variety performances, to simple performances focusing mostly on the strip tease. The advent of various forms of pornography gradually replaced titillation.

In the 1990s and 2000s, there has been a large-scale revival of burlesque in the United States and Canada with New Burlesque performers like, Dita Von Teese, Grotesque Burlesque, Dirty Martini, Kitten DeVille, Jo Boobs, The World Famous *BOB*, Scotty the Blue Bunny, Tigger, Julie Atlas Muz, Miss Saturn, Miss Indigo Blue, Sparkly Devil, Ruby Valentine Burlesque's Sweetheart, GiO Burlesque Queen of New Orleans, and troupes such as Fluffgirl Burlesque, Red Hots Burlesque, Burning Hearts Burlesque, Starshine Burlesque, The Cantankerous Lollies, Burlesque As It Was, The Velvet Hammer, and Burlesque Houston staging burlesque events. Annual burlesque festivals include the New York Burlesque Festival, Tease-O-Rama, The Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, and Miss Exotic World. New Burlesque evolved out of the exotica/lounge music revival of the 1990s, which generated an interest in lost American pop culture.

The British burlesque revival has also been immense, performers like Kittie Klaw and the Ministry Of Burlesque have led the way and ensured that the popularity of Burlesque is growing by the day.