Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LAUGH, v.i. [l'aff; Sax. hlihan; Goth. hlahyan; G. lachen; D. lachgen; Sw. le; Dan. leer; Heb. and Ch. לעג. laag. Class Lg, No.17.]

1. To make the noise and exhibit the features which are characteristic of mirth in the human species. Violent laughter is accompanied with the shaking of the sides, and all laughter expels breath from the lungs. – Bacon.
2. In poetry, to be gay; to appear gay, cheerful, pleasant, lively or brilliant. Then laughs the childish year with flow'rets crown'd. Dryden. And o'er the foaming bowl, the laughing wine. – Pope. To laugh at, to ridicule; to treat with some degree of contempt. No fool to laugh at, which he valued more. – Pope. To laugh to scorn, to deride; to treat with mockery, contempt and scorn. Neh. ii.

LAUGH'A-BLE, a. [l'affable.]

That may justly excite laughter; as, a laughable story; a laughable scene.

LAUGH'A-BLE-NESS, n.

The quality of being laughable.

LAUGH'A-BLY, adv.

In a manner to excite laughter.

LAUGH'ER, n. [l'affer.]

One who laughs or is fond of merriment. The laughers are a majority. – Pope.

LAUGH'ING, ppr. [l'affing.]

Expressing mirth in a particular manner.

LAUGH'ING-LY, adv. [l'affingly.]

In a merry way; with laughter.

LAUGH'ING-STOCK, n.

An object of ridicule; a butt of sport. – Spenser. Shak.

LAUGH'TER, n. [l'affter.]

Convulsive merriment; an expression of mirth peculiar to man, consisting in a peculiar noise and configuration of features, with a shaking of the sides and expulsion of breath. I said of laughter, it is mad. Eccles. ii.

LAUGH'TER-LESS, a.

Not laughing.

LAUGH-WOR-THY, a.

Deserving to be laughed at. – B. Jonson.

LAU'MON-ITE, n.

Efflorescent zeolite; so called from Laumont, its discoverer. It is found in laminated masses, in groups of prismatic crystals or prismatic distinct concretions. Exposed to the air, it disintegrates. – Cleaveland.

LAUNCH, v. [See LANCH, the more correct orthography.]

LAUND, n.

A lawn. [Not used.] – Chaucer.

LAUND'ER, n. [l'ander; from L. lavo, to wash.]

A washer-woman; also, a long and hollow trough, used by miners to receive the powdered ore from the box where it is beaten. – Encyc.

LAUND'ER, v.t. [l'ander.]

To wash; to wet. – Shak.

LAUND'ER-ER, n. [landerer.]

A man who follows the business of washing clothes. – Butler.

LAUND'RESS, n. [l'andress; Fr. lavandiere; Sp. lavandera; It. lavandaia; from L. lavo, Sp. lavar, to wash.]

A washer-woman; a female whose employment is to wash clothes.

LAUND'RESS, v.i. [l'andress. supra.]

To practice washing. – Blount.

LAUND'RY, n. [l'andry; Sp. lavadero.]

1. A washing. – Bacon.
2. The place or room where clothes are washed.

LAU'RE-ATE, a. [L. laureatus, from laurea, a laurel.]

Decked or invested with laurel; as, laureate hearse. – Milton. Soft on her lap her laureate son reclines. – Pope. Poet laureate, in Great Britain, an officer of the king's household, whose business is to compose an ode annually for, the king's birth-day, and for the new year. It is said this title was first given him in the time of Edward IV. – Encyc.

LAU'RE-ATE, v.t.

To honor with a degree in the university, and a present of a wreath of laurel. – Warton.

LAU'RE-A-TED, pp.

Honored with a degree and a laurel wreath.

LAU'RE-ATE-SHIP, n.

Office of a laureate.

LAU'RE-A-TING, ppr.

Honoring with a degree and a laurel wreath.