laugh

• laff (eye dialect)
• laughe (archaic)
• larf (Cockney eye dialect)

From Middle English laughen, laghen, from (Anglian) Old English hlæhhan, hlehhan, (West Saxon) hliehhan, from Proto-West Germanic *hlahhjan, from Proto-Germanic *hlahjaną.

A man laughing.

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /laːf/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /lɑːf/
• (Northern England, Scotland) IPA^(key): /laf/
• (General American) enPR: lăf, IPA^(key): /læf/

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• Rhymes: -ɑːf, -æf

laugh (plural laughs)

Recorded laughter of a woman

1. An expression of mirth particular to the human species; the sound heard in laughing; laughter.
   • 1803, Oliver Goldsmith, The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: With an Account of His Life, page 45:

     And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

   • 1869, F. W. Robertson, Lectures and Addresses on Literary and Social Topics, page 87:

     That man is a bad man who has not within him the power of a hearty laugh.

   His deep laughs boomed through the room.

2. Something that provokes mirth or scorn.
   • 1921, Ring Lardner, The Big Town: How I and the Mrs. Go to New York to See Life and Get Katie a Husband, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 73:

     “And this rug,” he says, stomping on an old rag carpet. “How much do you suppose that cost?” ¶ It was my first guess, so I said fifty dollars. ¶ “That’s a laugh,” he said. “I paid two thousand for that rug.”

   • 1979, Monty Python, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life:

     Life's a piece of shit / When you look at it / Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.

   Your new hat's an absolute laugh, dude.

3. (British, New Zealand) A fun person.
   • 2010, The Times, March 14, 2010, Tamzin Outhwaite, the unlikely musical star

     Outhwaite is a good laugh, yes, she knows how to smile: but deep down, she really is strong and stern.

• (expression of mirth): cackle, chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, snicker, snigger, titter, cachinnation
• (something that provokes mirth or scorn): joke, laughing stock

laugh (third-person singular simple present laughs, present participle laughing, simple past and past participle laughed)

1. (intransitive) 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.

   There were many laughing children running on the school grounds.

   • c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     But there was ſuch laughing, Queen Hecuba laught that her eyes ran ore.

   • 1807, William Wordsworth, “[I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud]”, in Poems, in Two Volumes, volume II, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], →OCLC, stanza 2, page 49:

     The waves beside them danced, but they / Outdid the sparkling waves in glee:— / A Poet could not but be gay / In such a laughing company: […]

   • 1899, Stephen Crane, Twelve O’Clock:

     The roars of laughter which greeted his proclamation were of two qualities; some men laughing because they knew all about cuckoo-clocks, and other men laughing because they had concluded that the eccentric Jake had been victimised by some wise child of civilisation.

   • 1979, Monty Python, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life:

     If life seems jolly rotten / There's something you've forgotten / And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.

2. (intransitive, figuratively, obsolete) To be or appear cheerful, pleasant, mirthful, lively, or brilliant; to sparkle; to sport.
   • a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “Of the Pythagorean Philosophy. From the Fifteenth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 51:

     The green ſtem grows in ſtature and in ſize, / But only feeds with hope the farmer's eyes; / Then laughs the childiſh year with flow'rets crowned, / And laviſhly prefumes the fields around, / But no ſubſtantial nouriſhment receives, / Infirm the ſtalks, unſolid are the leaves.

   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle II, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 17:

     In Folly’s Cup ſtill laughs the Bubble, Joy; [...]

3. (intransitive, followed by "at") To make an object of laughter or ridicule; to make fun of; to deride; to mock.

   Don't laugh at my new hat, man!

   • 1735, Alexander Pope, “Epistle III. To Allen Lord Bathurst.”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume II, London: […] J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 23, lines 311–314:

     No Wit to flatter, left of all his ſtore! / No Fool to laugh at, which he valued more. / There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends, / And fame, this lord of uſeleſs, thouſands ends.

   • 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter IV, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 71:

     There was something about him, Harry, that amused me. He was such a monster. You will laugh at me, I know, but I really went in and paid a whole guinea for the stage-box. To the present day I can't make out why I did so; [...]

   • 1967, The Beatles, Penny Lane:

     On the corner is a banker with a motorcar / The little children laugh at him behind his back

4. (transitive) To affect or influence by means of laughter or ridicule.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 7, column 2:

     Will you laugh me aſleepe, for I am very heauy.

5. (transitive) To express by, or utter with, laughter.
   • c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     From his deepe cheſt laughes out a lowd applauſe, [...]

   • 1866, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 8, in Behind a Mask, or A Woman’s Power:

     Fairfax addressed her as "my lady," she laughed her musical laugh, and glanced up at a picture of Gerald with eyes full of exultation.

   • 1906, Jack London, Moon-Face:

     "You refuse to take me seriously," Lute said, when she had laughed her appreciation. "How can I take that Planchette rigmarole seriously?"

The simple past tense forms laught, laugh'd and low and the past participles laught, laugh'd and laughen also exist, but are obsolete.

• (show mirth by peculiar movement of the muscles of the face): cackle, chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, snicker, snigger, titter
• See also Thesaurus:laugh

• (antonym(s) of “show mirth by peculiar movement of the muscles of the face”): cry, weep

• (show mirth by peculiar movement of the muscles of the face): cry, frown, scowl, smile

• laughster
• laughter

Note: the following were in a translation table for "be or appear gay", which, given the modern meanings, is misleading; the title of this table has now been changed to "be or appear cheerful". The translations therefore need to be checked.

• Slovene: ^{(please verify)} nasmejan (biti)

• comedy
• gelotology
• funny
• ha ha
• tee hee, tee hee hee

• Aghul

laugh

1. Alternative form of lawe