Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- intransitive v. To express certain emotions, especially mirth or delight, by a series of spontaneous, usually unarticulated sounds often accompanied by corresponding facial and bodily movements.
- intransitive v. To show or feel amusement or good humor: an experience we would laugh about later on.
- intransitive v. To feel or express derision or contempt; mock: I had to laugh when I saw who my opponent was.
- intransitive v. To feel a triumphant or exultant sense of well-being: You won't be laughing when the truth comes out.
- intransitive v. To produce sounds resembling laughter: parrots laughing and chattering in the trees.
- transitive v. To affect or influence by laughter: laughed the speaker off the stage; laughed the proposal down.
- transitive v. To say with a laugh: He laughed his delight at the victory.
- n. The act of laughing.
- n. The sound of laughing; laughter.
- n. Informal Something amusing, absurd, or contemptible; a joke: The solution they recommended was a laugh.
- n. Informal Fun; amusement. Often used in the plural: went along just for laughs.
- laugh at To treat lightly; scoff at: a daredevil who laughed at danger.
- off To dismiss as ridiculously or laughably trivial: laughed off any suggestion that her career was over.
- idiom laugh out of the other side of (one's) mouth To see one's good fortune turn to bad; suffer a humbling reversal.
- idiom up To rejoice or exult in secret, as at another's error or defeat.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. An expression of mirth particular to the human species; the sound heard in laughing; laughter.
- n. Something that provokes mirth or scorn.
- n. A fun person.
- v. To 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.
- v. To be or appear cheerful, pleasant, mirthful, lively, or brilliant; to sparkle; to sport.
- v. To make an object of laughter or ridicule; to make fun of; to deride; to mock.
- v. To affect or influence by means of laughter or ridicule.
- v. To express by, or utter with, laughter.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. An expression of mirth peculiar to the human species; the sound heard in laughing; laughter. See laugh, v. i.
- intransitive v. To 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.
- intransitive v. Fig.: To be or appear gay, cheerful, pleasant, mirthful, lively, or brilliant; to sparkle; to sport.
- transitive v. To affect or influence by means of laughter or ridicule.
- transitive v. To express by, or utter with, laughter; -- with out.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To express mirth or joy by an explosive inarticulate sound of the voice and a peculiar facial distortion; make a convulsive or chuckling noise excited by sudden merriment or pleasure.
- To be or appear gay; appear cheerful, pleasant, lively, or brilliant.
- To scoff playfully; make merry; flout; jeer: with at.
- To express laughingly; give out with jovial utterance or manner: as, he laughed his consent.
- To affect in some way by laughter, or a laughing manner; act upon by exercise of risibility: as, to laugh one's self sick or into convulsions; to laugh one out of countenance.
- n. An expression of merriment by an explosive noise; an inarticulate expression of sudden mirth or joy.
- n. Mirth or merriment, particularly at the expense of some person or thing; ridicule: used with the definite article: as, the laugh was turned against him.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter
- n. a facial expression characteristic of a person laughing
- v. produce laughter
- n. the sound of laughing
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Examples
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A man, to laugh well, must be an honest man -- mind, I say _laugh_: when Shakspeare says
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 378, April, 1847
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… Is Wagner’s “Parsifal” his secret laugh of superiority at himself, the triumph of his last and most exalted state of artistic freedom, of artistic transcendence — is it Wagner able to _laugh_ at himself?
The Case Of Wagner, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, and Selected Aphorisms.
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But intriguingly, it appears that the laughter of prehistoric people is echoed in the word laugh.
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Telling a joke that fails to deliver a laugh is also a violation of one of the many unspoken social contracts that govern our interactions with each other.
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I bet her laugh is the most awesome sound I could hear today, just watching her is awesome!
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In fact the laugh is at the expense of those who deploy the word.
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She has a sexy, hearty voice, but her laugh is all little girl.
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THIS house seems to be the house of joy; every face wears a smile, and a laugh is at every body's service.
Evelina: or, The History of a Young Lady's Entrance Into the World
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I, almost, always get a belly laugh from the stupid POS trying to disguise himself like a thief in the night.
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What makes me laugh is that a GOOD, LEGITIMATE “interviewer” usually LISTENS to the reply after asking a question in order to create follow-up questions.
Think Progress » VIDEO: Bret Baier Interviewing Obama Vs. Bret Baier Interviewing Bush
kayo commented on the word laugh
giggle, make a sound w/ your voice when smiling
May 16, 2009
frangarnes commented on the word laugh
/lɑ:f/
October 19, 2007
frangarnes commented on the word laugh
Reír(se), risa // WordReference
October 19, 2007