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chortle

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The definition of a chortle is a chuckle or breathy, gleeful laugh.

(noun)

The breathy laugh you make when someone is tickling you is an example of a chortle.

To chortle is to laugh in a breathy and joyful way.

(verb)

When someone is tickling you and you make a snorting chuckle sound, this is an example of a time when you chortle.

See chortle in Webster's New World College Dictionary

intransitive verb, transitive verb chortled, chortling

to make, or utter with, a gleeful chuckling or snorting sound

Origin: coined by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass, prob. chuckle + snort

noun

such a sound

Related Forms:

chortler noun

See chortle in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

A snorting, joyful laugh or chuckle.

intr. & tr.v. chor·tled, chor·tling, chor·tles

To utter a chortle or express with a chortle.

Origin:

Origin: Blend of chuckle

Origin: and snort

Related Forms:

chorˈtler noun

Word History: “‘O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’ He chortled in his joy.” Perhaps Lewis Carroll would chortle a bit himself to find that people are still using the word chortle, which he coined in Through the Looking-Glass, published in 1872. In any case, Carroll had constructed his word well, combining the words chuckle and snort. This type of word is called a blend or a portmanteau word. In Through the Looking-Glass Humpty Dumpty uses portmanteau to describe the word slithy, saying, “It's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word” (the meanings being “lithe” and “slimy”).

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