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, клокота́ть, клохта́ть ‘to cluck, cackle’, Ancient Greek κλώζω, κλώσσω ‘to cackle, clack’, Welsh cloch ‘bell’, possibly Latin glōcīre ‘to cluck’.

• (Australia) IPA: /laːf/
• (RP) IPA: /lɑːf/
• (Northern England, Scotland) IPA: /laf/
• (America) enPR: lăf, IPA: /læf/

laugh (plural laughs)

1. 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.

2. Something that provokes mirth or scorn.
   • 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.

3. (Britain, NZ) 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.

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

• French: rire
• German: Lachen, Lache
• Italian: riso, risata
• Portuguese: riso, risada
• Russian: смех
• Spanish: risa

• Italian: ludibrio, derisione, disdegno, ilarità
• Portuguese: sarro
• Russian: смех

laugh (laughs, present participle laughing; simple past and past participle laughed)

1. (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.

2. (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; [...]

3. (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

4. (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.

5. (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, [...]

   • 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?"

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

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

• laughster
• laughter

• French: rire
• German: lachen
• Italian: ridere
• Portuguese: rir
• Russian: смея́ться
• Spanish: reír

• German: lachen
• Portuguese: jubilar

• French: rire, moquer
• German: auslachen
• Portuguese: zoar, tirar sarro, caçoar, escarnecer
• Russian: смея́ться
• Spanish: reírse