Dictionary entries for 'laugh'

Synonyms

laugh (lăf, läf)

[Middle English laughen, from Old English hlæhhan, probably ultimately of imitative origin.]

verb: laughed, laugh·ing, laughs.

To express certain emotions, especially mirth or delight, by a series of spontaneous, usually unarticulated sounds often accompanied by corresponding facial and bodily movements.
To show or feel amusement or good humor: an experience we would laugh about later on.
1. To feel or express derision or contempt; mock: I had to laugh when I saw who my opponent was.
2. To feel a triumphant or exultant sense of well-being: You won't be laughing when the truth comes out.
To produce sounds resembling laughter: parrots laughing and chattering in the trees.

To affect or influence by laughter: laughed the speaker off the stage; laughed the proposal down.
To say with a laugh: He laughed his delight at the victory.

1. The act of laughing.
2. The sound of laughing; laughter.
Informal Something amusing, absurd, or contemptible; a joke: The solution they recommended was a laugh.
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.
laugh off: To dismiss as ridiculously or laughably trivial: laughed off any suggestion that her career was over.

laugh out of the other side of (one's) mouth: To see one's good fortune turn to bad; suffer a humbling reversal.
laugh up (one's) sleeve: To rejoice or exult in secret, as at another's error or defeat.