释义 |
▪ I. laughing, vbl. n.|ˈlɑːfɪŋ, ˈlæf-| [f. laugh v. + -ing1.] a. The action of the vb. laugh; laughter; † an instance of this. Phrase, to burst out (a) laughing.
1340Ayenb. 128 He..euremo ssolle by myd god ine paise and ine leȝinge. 1382Wyclif Job viii. 21 To the time that thi mouth be fulfild with laȝhing. c1440Jacob's Well 171 Leyȝhyng & enioyng, in a seke body, is sygne of deth. a1450Knt. de la Tour (1868) 42 He saw the fende write alle the laughinges that were betwene the women atte the masse. 1563–83Foxe A. & M. II. 1212/2 Whereat was good laughyng in sleeues of some. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 281 At the estate of such as are to be lamented, you fall a laughing. 1650Hobbes Hum. Nat. ix. 104 Laughing to ones self putteth all the rest to jealousie and examination of themselves. 1692L'Estrange Fables, Life æsop (1708) 18 bis, They all burst out a laughing by Consent. 1737Fielding Hist. Reg. iii. Wks. 1882 X. 230 He's a laughing in his sleeve at the patriots. 1801M. Edgeworth Angelina iv. (1832) 69 ‘Nat!’ exclaimed Miss Hodges, bursting out laughing. 1812Parl. Debate 7 May in Examiner 11 May 297/2 Hear, hear, and laughing. 1848Kingsley Yeast viii, ‘Be you a laughing at a poor fellow in his trouble?’ Proverb.13..Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. (E.E.T.S.) 534/185 Þe fol is knowen bi his lauhwhing. 1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 141 By ofte laghynge thow mayste know a fole. b. attrib. and Comb., as laughing-humour, laughing-side, laughing-thing, laughing-time; also laughing death = kuru; † laughing-game = laughing-stock; laughing-matter (esp. in phr. it is no or not a laughing matter), a subject for laughter; laughing-muscle, the risorius, or the muscle that produces the contortions attendant upon laughter; † laughing-peal, a peal of laughter; † laughing-post, -stake = laughing-stock.
1958Times 9 Jan. 10/1 The newly discovered illness in New Guinea..has become known as the ‘*laughing death’... The malady is comparable in some respects to paralysis agitans. 1967Acta Tropica XXIV. 193 (heading) Kuru—the laughing death.
1564tr. Jewel's Apol. Ch. Eng. i. (1859) 5 [They] did count them [Christians] no better than the vilest filth, the offscourings and *laughing games of the whole world.
1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 436 Though not in a *laughing humour, I swear that I cannot help laughing.
1563–83Foxe A. & M. II. 1763/1 Then the audience laughed agayne: and Maister Latimer spake vnto them saying: why my maisters, this is no *laughyng matter. I aunsweare vppon lyfe and death. 1793Sheridan in Sheridaniana 141 A joke in your mouth is no laughing matter. 1809Malkin Gil Blas vii. xiv, These little festivities were laughing matters. 1833Marryat P. Simple ix, It was not exactly a laughing matter to me.
1593‘Foulface’ Bacchus Bountie C 3, The whole hall for ioy did ring out a loud *laffing peale.
1810Splendid Follies II. 150 Nobody can't say I have stuck myself up for a *laughing post.
1864Knight Passages Work. Life I. i. 106 One [person] I especially remember as looking upon the *laughing side of human affairs.
a1625? Fletcher Faithf. Friends i. iii, He lay in Vulcan's gyves a *laughing-stake.
1541R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 F iv b, It shuld be a *laughyng thynge that so many of dyuers and often contraryes shulde be taken of a communyte.
1534More Comf. agst. Trib. i. xiii. (1553) c v b, To proue that thys lyfe is no *laughyng tyme. ▪ II. laughing, ppl. a.|ˈlɑːfɪŋ, ˈlæf-| [f. laugh v. + -ing2.] a. That laughs.
a1300Cursor M. 7366 In visage es he bright and clere, In red of heu, o laghand chere. 13..Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 988 Þus wyth laȝande lotez þe lorde hit tayt makez. 1375Barbour Bruce ii. 34 [He] schawyt him, with lauchand cher, The Endentur. c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 922 A gyrle havyng laughyng eyes. 1557Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 257 Wo shall yeld thee frendes in laughing wealth to loue. c1590Manifolde Enormities in Chetham Misc. IV, The Scornefull laffinge Countenance of other som. 1709Steele Tatler No. 58 ⁋2 A Man would be apt to think in this laughing Town, that [etc.]. 1725Pope Odyss. ix. 10 O'er the foaming bowl the laughing wine. 1761Churchill Night Poems I. 90 Night's laughing hours unheeded slip away. 1781E. Darwin Bot. Gard. i. (1791) 5 And tunes to softer notes her laughing lyre. 1821Shelley Adonais xlix, A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread. 1851Carlyle Sterling iii. iii. (1872) 183 A brisk laughing sea..made a pleasant outlook. 1885J. Payn Talk of Town I. 75 Maggie held up her finger reprovingly, but her laughing eyes belied the gesture. b. In the names of animals, so called from their cry or aspect: laughing-bird dial., the green woodpecker (Gecinus viridis); laughing-crow, a name for various Asiatic birds; by some writers used as = laughing-thrush; laughing dove, the African dove, Stigmatopelia senegalensis; laughing-goose, the white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons); laughing gull, a North American gull, Larus atricilla; laughing jackass = jackass n. 3 (q.v. for examples), kookaburra; laughing-owl (see quot.); laughing-thrush, a name given to certain Asiatic birds (see quots.). See also gull n.1, hyena, jackass.
1862Wood Nat. Hist. II. 345 The *Laughing Crow of India (Garrulax leucolophus). 1879Rossiter Dict. Sci. Terms s.v., Laughing Crow, Cinclosoma erythrocephalus, a bird belonging to Merulidæ.
1881E. E. Frewer tr. Holub's Seven Yrs. S. Afr. I. ii. 47 The most common birds in the Riet River valley are doves, and those almost exclusively of two sorts, the South African blue-grey turtle-dove, and the *laughing dove. 1966E. Palmer Plains of Camdeboo xii. 196 The thorn trees were full of laughing dove.
1772Forster in Phil. Trans. LXII. 415 The *laughing goose is of the size of the Canada or small grey goose. 1830P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 13 Bagged 3 of the white-fronted laughing geese.
1789J. Morse Amer. Geogr. 59 American Birds [include]..*Laughing Gull, Goose, Canada Goose [etc.]. 1884Bull. U.S. Nat. Museum No. 27. 169 Laughing Gull... Atlantic coast, from Maine (casually) to mouth of the Amazon. 1968Times 10 Oct. 8/8 The laughing gull could be a useful animal for studying colour perception.
1873W. L. Buller Birds N. Zealand 21 Sceloglaux albifacies (*Laughing Owl).
1859–62Sir J. Richardson, etc. Mus. Nat. Hist. (1868) I. 331 The *Laughing Thrush (Pterocyclus cachinnans)..is especially abundant in the thick woods which clothe the Neilgherries. 1879Rossiter Dict. Sci. Terms, s.v., Laughing Thrush, Trochaloptera phœniceum. 1880A. R. Wallace Isl. Life iii. 44 The fine laughing-thrushes, forming the genus Garrulax. c. laughing-eyed adj.
1851H. Melville Moby Dick cxxxii. 597 So have I seen little Miriam and Martha, laughing-eyed elves, heedlessly gambol around their old sire. 1896H. Belloc Verses & Sonnets 57 This is the laughing-eyed amongst them all: My lady's month. 1909Westm. Gaz. 7 Aug. 9/1 Pale-faced women were hugging to their hearts their rosy-cheeked, laughing-eyed children. Hence ˈlaughingly adv., in a laughing manner.
1563–83Foxe A. & M. II. 1524/1 For (sayth he laughingly) his Chapleine gaue him counsel not to strike me with his Crosierstaffe, for that I would strike agayne. 1825Hone Every-day Bk. I. 112 Laughingly he taunted them. 1874Green Short Hist. ix. §3. 617 Charles laughingly bid him set all fear aside. 1894Fenn In Alpine Valley II. 139 To take troubles laughingly.
Add: laughingly adv.: (b) with laughable inappropriateness; ludicrously.
1954Wyndham Lewis Self Condemned xi. 181 If you were a ‘wine-hound’ you could have what in Canada is laughingly called wine. 1967P. Shaffer Black Comedy 51 Then we can buy a super Georgian house and live what's laughingly known as happily ever after. 1990Industry Week 5 Nov. 56/3 He has upped the ante so that fines are no longer laughingly small. |