# laugh
## English
### Alternative forms

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

### Etymology

From Middle English laughen, laghen, from (Anglian) Old English hlæhhan, hlehhan, (West Saxon) hliehhan, from Proto-West Germanic *hlahhjan, from Proto-Germanic *hlahjaną.
Germanic: (with j-present) Scots lauch, Icelandic hlæja, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish le; (without) Low German lachen, Dutch lachen, German lachen.
Indo-European: Russian клекота́ть (klekotátʹ), клокота́ть (klokotátʹ), клохта́ть (kloxtátʹ) ‘to cluck, cackle’, Ancient Greek κλώζω (klṓzō), κλώσσω (klṓssō) ‘to cackle, clack’, Welsh cloch ‘bell’, possibly Latin glōcīre ‘to cluck’.

### Pronunciation

* (General Australian) IPA: /laːf/
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /lɑːf/
* (Northern England, Scotland) IPA: /laf/
* (General American) enPR: lăf, IPA: /læf/
** Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɑːf, -æf

### Noun

laugh (plural laughs)
* 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.
* 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.
* (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.

#### Synonyms

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

#### Derived terms

* barrel of laughs
* belly laugh
* bundle of laughs
* evil laugh
* for a laugh
* get the last laugh
* good for a laugh
* have a laugh
* have the last laugh
* have the laugh on one's side
* Homeric laugh
* horselaugh
* laugh a minute
* laughathon
* laugh die me
* laughless
* laughlike
* laugh line
* laughline
* laugh machine
* laugh one's ass off
* laugh riot
* laughsmith
* laughsome
* laugh test
* laugh track
* laughworthy
* liquid laugh
* that's a laugh

#### Translations
### Verb

laugh (third-person singular simple present laughs, present participle laughing, simple past and past participle laughed)
* (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.
* (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; [...]
* (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
* (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.
* (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?"

#### Usage notes

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

#### Conjugation

$^†$ Archaic or obsolete.

#### Synonyms

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

#### Antonyms

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

#### Coordinate terms

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

#### Derived terms

* belaugh
* belly-laugh
* burst out laughing
* cry-laugh
* don't make me laugh
* enough to make a cat laugh
* he who laughs last laughs best
* he who laughs last laughs longest
* it is to laugh
* laughable
* laugh all the way to the bank
* laugh and grow fat
* laugh at
* laugh away
* laugh down
* laugher
* laugh-in
* laughing (adjective)
* laughingly
* laugh in one's sleeve
* laugh in someone's face
* laugh in the sleeve
* laugh like a drain
* laugh like a hyena
* laugh off
* laugh one out of
* laugh one's ass off
* laugh one's head off
* laugh on the other side of one's face
* laugh on the wrong side of one's face
* laugh on the wrong side of one's mouth
* laugh-out-loud
* laugh out of court
* laugh out of the other corner of the mouth, laugh out of the other side of the mouth
* laugh out of the other side of one's mouth
* laugh to scorn
* laugh track
* laugh up one's sleeve
* laugh with
* LOL
* make a cat laugh
* outlaugh
* ROTFL
* time spent laughing is time spent with the gods
* unlaugh
* you're having a laugh
* you've got to laugh

#### Related terms

* laughster
* laughter

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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: nasmejan (biti)

### See also

* comedy
* gelotology
* funny
* ha ha
* tee hee, tee hee hee

### Anagrams

* Aghul

## Middle English
### Noun

laugh
* Alternative form of lawe