laughing

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Related to laughing: laughing gas

laugh

(lăf, 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.

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.

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. often laughs Informal Fun; amusement: went along just for laughs.

Phrasal Verbs:

laugh at

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

laugh off (or away)

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

Idioms:

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.

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.

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

laugh′er n.

laugh′ing·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

laugh•ing

(ˈlæf ɪŋ, ˈlɑ fɪŋ)

adj.

1. uttering sounds like laughter, as some birds.

2. laughable: That mistake is no laughing matter.

3. laughter.

[1250–1300]

laugh′ing•ly, adv.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Adj.

laughing - showing or feeling mirth or pleasure or happiness; "laughing children"

riant

happy - enjoying or showing or marked by joy or pleasure; "a happy smile"; "spent many happy days on the beach"; "a happy marriage"

laughing

adjective

1. Deserving laughter:

comic, comical, farcical, funny, laughable, ludicrous, ridiculous, risible.

2. Emitting a murmuring sound felt to resemble a laugh:

babbling, bubbling, burbling, gurgling, rippling.

Translations

allegro ridente

смех

laughing

[ˈlɑːfɪŋ]

A. ADJ → risueño, alegre
it's no laughing matter → no tiene ninguna gracia, no es cosa de risa

B. CPD laughing gas N → gas m hilarante
laughing stock N → hazmerreír m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

laughing

[ˈlɑːfɪŋ] adj [person] → rieur/euselaughing gas n → gaz m hilarantlaughing matter n
this is no laughing matter → il n'y a pas de quoi rire, ça n'a rien d'amusantlaughing stock n
to be the laughing stock of sb → être la risée de qn
He was the laughing stock of the class → Il était la risée de la classe.
We risked becoming the laughing stock of the developed world → Nous risquions de devenir la risée du monde développé.
to become a laughing stock → devenir objet de risée

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

laughing

adj → lachend; it’s no laughing matter → das ist nicht zum Lachen, das ist gar nicht komisch

n → Lachen nt; hysterical laughing → hysterisches Gelächter

laughing

laughing gas

n → Lachgas nt

laughing hy(a)ena

n → Tüpfel- or Fleckenhyäne f

laughing jackass

n → Rieseneisvogel m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

laughing

[ˈlɑːfɪŋ] adj (face) → ridente
this is no laughing matter → non è una cosa da ridere

References in classic literature ?

It was carried carefully from house to house, as if it were itself a child; my mother made much of it, smoothed it out, petted it, smiled to it before putting it into the arms of those to whom it was being lent; she was in our pew to see it borne magnificently (something inside it now) down the aisle to the pulpit-side, when a stir of expectancy went through the church and we kicked each other's feet beneath the book-board but were reverent in the face; and however the child might behave, laughing brazenly or skirling to its mother's shame, and whatever the father as he held it up might do, look doited probably and bow at the wrong time, the christening robe of long experience helped them through.

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He was always gleeful and laughing. All things were always all right, curse him!

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As he walked along the street, looking nervously about and laughing, he seemed more dangerous than his silent, fierce-looking son.

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For one moment it was all he could do to restrain himself from bursting out laughing; but, looking closer, he observed that the prince did not seem to be quite himself; at all events, he was in a very curious state.

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Prince Andrew, looking again at that genealogical tree, shook his head, laughing as a man laughs who looks at a portrait so characteristic of the original as to be amusing.

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- how unblest not to know the wickedness of laughing at another's misfortune!"

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"Nay," quoth Robin, laughing loudly, "many do like me and wish me well, but few call me honest.

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He could not see anything of the performance on account of the mist of suspicion, anger, dismay, and wretchedness which seemed to be before his eyes; but he forced himself to conceal the fact that anything was the matter; he went on talking and laughing. Then a strange desire to torture himself seized him, and he got up, saying he wanted to go and drink something.

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Then all at once she burst out laughing, and laughed for a long while.

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"Shoo--shoo--shoo!" cried Scraps, dancing around and laughing. "And your horrid green eyes, Miss Bungle!

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Is that the way Polly soothes the best of brothers?" said Tom, still laughing.

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He--did not love sufficiently: otherwise would he also have loved us, the laughing ones!