laugh

plural laughs · alternative laff · alternative laughe · alternative larf

1. An expression of mirth particular to the human species; the sound heard in laughing; laughter.

   His deep laughs boomed through the room.

   3 more examples

   And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

   1803, Oliver Goldsmith, The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: With an Account of His Life, page 45

   That man is a bad man who has not within him the power of a hearty laugh.

   1869, F. W. Robertson, Lectures and Addresses on Literary and Social Topics, page 87

   It never fails to get a laugh. Here's to more humor in chess.

   1961 March, A. Robert Weeks, “Readers' Forum”, in Chess Review

   Synonyms: cackle, chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, snicker, snigger, titter

2. Something that provokes mirth or scorn.

   Your new hat's an absolute laugh, dude.

   2 more examples

   “And this rug,” he says, stomping on an old rag carpet. “How much do you suppose that cost?” ¶ It was my first guess, so I said fifty dollars. ¶ “That’s a laugh,” he said. “I paid two thousand for that rug.”

   1921, Ring Lardner, The Big Town: How I and the Mrs. Go to New York to See Life and Get Katie a Husband, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 73

   Life's a piece of shit / When you look at it / Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.

   1979, Monty Python, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

   Synonyms: joke, laughing stock

3. New ZealandUKA fun person.

   a good laugh

   1 more example

   2010, The Times, March 14, 2010, Tamzin Outhwaite, the unlikely musical star Outhwaite is a good laugh, yes, she knows how to smile: but deep down, she really is strong and stern.

present singular third person laughs · participle present laughing · participle past laughed · past laughed · first person past singular laughed · archaic present second person singular laughest · past second person singular laughed · archaic past second person singular laughedst · present singular third person laughs · archaic present singular third person laugheth · past singular third person laughed · past plural laughed · past subjunctive laughed · participle present laughing · participle past laughed · alternative laff

1. intransitiveTo show mirth, satisfaction, or derision, by peculiar movement of the muscles of the face, particularly of the mouth, causing a lighting up of the face and eyes, and usually accompanied by the emission of explosive or chuckling sounds from the chest and throat; to indulge in laughter.

   There were many laughing children running on the school grounds.

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   But there was ſuch laughing, Queen Hecuba laught that her eyes ran ore.

   c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   The waves beside them danced, but they / Outdid the sparkling waves in glee:— / A Poet could not but be gay / In such a laughing company: […]

   1807, William Wordsworth, “[I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud]”, in Poems, in Two Volumes, volume II, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], →OCLC, stanza 2, page 49

   The roars of laughter which greeted his proclamation were of two qualities; some men laughing because they knew all about cuckoo-clocks, and other men laughing because they had concluded that the eccentric Jake had been victimised by some wise child of civilisation.

   1899, Stephen Crane, Twelve O’Clock

   If life seems jolly rotten / There's something you've forgotten / And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.

   1979, Monty Python, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

   Synonyms: cackle, chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, snicker, snigger, titter

2. figurativelyintransitiveobsoleteTo be or appear cheerful, pleasant, mirthful, lively, or brilliant; to sparkle; to sport.

   In Folly’s Cup ſtill laughs the Bubble, Joy; [...]

   1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle II, London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 17

   1 more example

   The green ſtem grows in ſtature and in ſize, / But only feeds with hope the farmer's eyes; / Then laughs the childiſh year with flow'rets crowned, / And laviſhly prefumes the fields around, / But no ſubſtantial nouriſhment receives, / Infirm the ſtalks, unſolid are the leaves.

   a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “Of the Pythagorean Philosophy. From the Fifteenth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 51

3. intransitiveTo make an object of laughter or ridicule; to make fun of; to deride; to mock.

   Don't laugh at my new hat, man!

   3 more examples

   No Wit to flatter, left of all his ſtore! / No Fool to laugh at, which he valued more. / There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends, / And fame, this lord of uſeleſs, thouſands ends.

   1735, Alexander Pope, “Epistle III. To Allen Lord Bathurst.”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume II, London: […] J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 23, lines 311–314

   There was something about him, Harry, that amused me. He was such a monster. You will laugh at me, I know, but I really went in and paid a whole guinea for the stage-box. To the present day I can't make out why I did so; [...]

   1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter IV, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 71

   On the corner is a banker with a motorcar / The little children laugh at him behind his back

   1967, The Beatles, Penny Lane

4. transitiveTo affect or influence by means of laughter or ridicule.

   Will you laugh me aſleepe, for I am very heauy.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 7, column 2

5. transitiveTo express by, or utter with, laughter.

   From his deepe cheſt laughes out a lowd applauſe, [...]

   c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

   2 more examples

   Fairfax addressed her as "my lady," she laughed her musical laugh, and glanced up at a picture of Gerald with eyes full of exultation.

   1866, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 8, in Behind a Mask, or A Woman’s Power

   "You refuse to take me seriously," Lute said, when she had laughed her appreciation. "How can I take that Planchette rigmarole seriously?"

   1906, Jack London, Moon-Face