laugh at

laugh  (lf, läf)

v. laughed, laugh·ing, laughs

v.intr.

1. To express certain emotions, especially mirth or delight, by a series of spontaneous, usually unarticulated sounds often accompanied by corresponding facial and bodily movements.

2. To show or feel amusement or good humor: an experience we would laugh about later on.

3.

a. To feel or express derision or contempt; mock: I had to laugh when I saw who my opponent was.

b. To feel a triumphant or exultant sense of well-being: You won't be laughing when the truth comes out.

4. To produce sounds resembling laughter: parrots laughing and chattering in the trees.

v.tr.

1. To affect or influence by laughter: laughed the speaker off the stage; laughed the proposal down.

2. To say with a laugh: He laughed his delight at the victory.

n.

1.

a. The act of laughing.

b. The sound of laughing; laughter.

2. Informal Something amusing, absurd, or contemptible; a joke: The solution they recommended was a laugh.

3. Informal Fun; amusement. Often used in the plural: went along just for laughs.

Phrasal Verbs:

laugh at

To treat lightly; scoff at: a daredevil who laughed at danger.

laugh off/away

To dismiss as ridiculously or laughably trivial: laughed off any suggestion that her career was over.

Idioms:

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/in (one's) sleeve

To rejoice or exult in secret, as at another's error or defeat.

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

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laugher n.

laughing·ly adv.

Thesaurus

Verb

1.

laugh at - subject to laughter or ridicule; "The satirists ridiculed the plans for a new opera house"; "The students poked fun at the inexperienced teacher"; "His former students roasted the professor at his 60th birthday" blackguard, guy, jest at, make fun, poke fun, ridicule, roast, rib bemock, mock - treat with contempt; "The new constitution mocks all democratic principles" tease - mock or make fun of playfully; "the flirting man teased the young woman" lampoon, satirise, satirize - ridicule with satire; "The writer satirized the politician's proposal" debunk, expose - expose while ridiculing; especially of pretentious or false claims and ideas; "The physicist debunked the psychic's claims" stultify - cause to appear foolish; "He stultified himself by contradicting himself and being inconsistent"