> as lemmas

1689 R. Gould Poems 305 Thus Error, in its rise, I strove to quash, And where I spar'd the laugh, I gave the lash.

1712 Spectator No. 279. 161 I remember but one Laugh in the whole Æneid, which rises in the Fifth Book upon Monœtes.

1819 C. Felch Let. 26 Aug. in Amer. Jrnl. Sci. (1920) 250 157 William. T. Malbone..seeing some appearance on the water, said—‘there is your Sea Serpent,’ meaning it as a laugh on me, for believing in its existence.

1895 G. B. Shaw in Sat. Rev. 2 Mar. 281/2 The piece contained three or four ‘laughs’ which could not possibly have been explained or described at a dinner party.

1921 Motion Picture Mag. Oct. 21/2 There is unlimited room for the screen comedy of manners and for comedy that depends for its laughs upon the sheer power of clever situations.

1930 W. R. Burnett Iron Man i. 3 Ain't that a laugh!.. That guy's been sleeping for the last half-hour, and he says we're a lot of company.

1961 A. Wilson Old Men at Zoo i. 51 That's a laugh. When Leacock was head of the Aquarium, he did absolutely nothing.

1999 Elephant & Castle (Coventry Univ. Students' Union) Oct. 15/1 Take four guys who all vow to get laid before their Prom night and you get a film that's full of laughs!

2001 Independent 22 Mar. i. 7/3 ‘I was worried the snow would kill some of my lambs,’ said one farmer, swigging back a beer, ‘What a laugh. I am going to lose all of them, aren't I?’