Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of sneering or laughing derisively; mockery; derision.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of laughing at another; derision.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete The act of laughing at another; derision.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin irrisio, from irridere, irrisum, to laugh at; prefix ir- in + ridere to laugh: compare French irrision.

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Examples

  • Grindal describes him as "sophistical, disdainful, and illuding arguments with irrision, when he was not able to solute the same by learning", and adds that "his great anchor-hold was in urging the literal sense of hoc est corpus meum, thereby to prove transubstantiation".

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 15: Tournely-Zwirner 1840-1916 1913

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