[laf, lahf] 
| 1. | to express mirth, pleasure, derision, or nervousness with an audible, vocal expulsion of air from the lungs that can range from a loud burst of sound to a series of quiet chuckles and is usually accompanied by characteristic facial and bodily movements. |
| 2. | to experience the emotion so expressed: He laughed inwardly at the scene. |
| 3. | to produce a sound resembling human laughter: A coyote laughed in the dark. |
| 4. | to drive, put, bring, etc., by or with laughter (often fol. by out, away, down, etc.): They laughed him out of town. We laughed away our troubles. |
| 5. | to utter with laughter: He laughed his consent. |
| 6. | the act or sound of laughing; laughter. |
| 7. | an expression of mirth, derision, etc., by laughing. |
| 8. | Informal. something that provokes laughter, amusement, or ridicule: After all the advance publicity, the prizefight turned out to be a laugh. |
| 9. | laughs, Informal. fun; amusement. |
| 10. | laugh at,
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| 11. | laugh off, to dismiss as ridiculous, trivial, or hollow: He had received threats but laughed them off as the work of a crank. |
| 12. | have the last laugh, to prove ultimately successful after a seeming defeat or loss: She smiled slyly, because she knew she would yet have the last laugh on them. |
| 13. | laugh out of court, to dismiss or depreciate by means of ridicule; totally scorn: His violent protests were laughed out of court by the others. |
| 14. | laugh out of the other side of one's mouth. to undergo a chastening reversal, as of glee or satisfaction that is premature; be ultimately chagrined, punished, etc.; cry: She's proud of her promotion, but she'll laugh out of the other side of her mouth when the work piles up. Also, laugh on the wrong side of one's mouth or face. |
| 15. | laugh up one's sleeve. sleeve (def. 6). |
"If I coveted nowe to avenge the injuries that you have done me, I myght laughe in my slyve." [John Daus, "Sleidanes Commentaries," 1560]The noun is first attested 1690, from the verb. Meaning "a cause of laughter" is from 1895; ironic use (e.g. that's a laugh) attested from 1930. Laughter is O.E. hleahtor, from P.Gmc. *hlahtraz (cf. O.N. hlatr, Ger. Gelächter). Nitrous oxide has been called laughing gas since 1842 (for its exhilarating effects). Laugh track "canned laughter on a TV program" is from 1966.