Laugh Definition

lăf, läf
laughed, laughing, laughs
verb
laughed, laughing, laughs
To make the explosive sounds of the voice, and the characteristic movements of the features and body, that express mirth, amusement, ridicule, etc.
Webster's New World
To be amused.
Webster's New World
To feel or suggest joyousness; appear bright and merry.
Laughing eyes.
Webster's New World
To feel or express derision or contempt; mock.
I had to laugh when I saw who my opponent was.
American Heritage
To feel a triumphant or exultant sense of well-being.
You won't be laughing when the truth comes out.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
noun
laughs
The act or sound of laughing.
Webster's New World
The sound of laughing; laughter.
American Heritage
Anything that provokes or is fit to provoke laughter.
Webster's New World
Something amusing, absurd, or contemptible; a joke.
The solution they recommended was a laugh.
American Heritage
Mere diversion or pleasure.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
idiom
laugh all the way to the bank
  • To take glee in making money, especially from activity that others consider to be unimpressive or unlikely to turn a profit.
American Heritage
laugh out of the other side of (one's) mouth
  • To see one's good fortune turn to bad; suffer a humbling reversal.
American Heritage
laugh up
  • To rejoice or exult in secret, as at another's error or defeat.
American Heritage
have the last laugh
  • to win or prevail ultimately, after apparent defeat and discomfiture
Webster's New World
laugh at
  • to be amused by
  • to make fun of; ridicule; deride
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Laugh

Noun

Singular:
laugh
Plural:
laughs

Origin of Laugh

  • From Middle English laughen, laghen, from Old English hlehhan, hlæhan, hlihhan, hliehhan (“to laugh, laugh at, deride, rejoice "), from Proto-Germanic *hlahjanÄ… (“to laugh"), from Proto-Indo-European *klek-, *kleg- (“to shout"). Cognate with Scots lauch (“to laugh"), West Frisian laitsje (“to laugh"), Dutch lachen (“to laugh, smile"), German lachen (“to laugh"), Danish le (“to laugh"), Icelandic hlæja (“to laugh"), Albanian qesh (“to laugh") < arc. klêsh, Latin glōcÄ«re (“to cluck"), Latin glattÄ«re (“to yelp"), Latin gliccÄ«re (“to gaggle"), Welsh cloch (“bell"), Ancient Greek κλώσσω (klṓssô, “to cluck"), Old Church Slavonic клєкотъ (klekotÅ­, “laughter, noise"), Latin clangō (“scream, sound"). Related to clang.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English laughen from Old English hlæhhan probably ultimately of imitative origin

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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