Laughter

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Laughter \Laugh"ter\, n. [AS. hleahtor; akin to OHG. hlahtar, G.
     gel[aum]chter, Icel. hl[=a]tr, Dan. latter. See {Laugh}, v.
     i. ]
     A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the face,
     particularly of the lips, with a peculiar expression of the
     eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction, or derision, and


     usually attended by a sonorous and interrupted expulsion of
     air from the lungs. See {Laugh}, v. i.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The act of laughter, which is a sweet contraction of
           the muscles of the face, and a pleasant agitation of
           the vocal organs, is not merely, or totally within the
           jurisdiction of ourselves.               --Sir T.
                                                    Browne.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes overrunning
           with laughter.                           --Longfellow.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  laughter
       n 1: the sound of laughing [syn: {laugh}]
       2: the activity of laughing; the manifestation of joy or mirth
          of scorn; "he enjoyed the laughter of the crowd"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  61 Moby Thesaurus words for "laughter":
     Homeric laughter, amusement, belly laugh, boff, boffola,
     burst of laughter, cachinnation, cackle, chortle, chortling,
     chuckle, convulsion, crow, fit of laughter, frivolity, fun,
     gales of laughter, giggle, glee, gleefulness, guffaw, ha-ha,
     hearty laugh, hee-haw, hee-hee, high glee, hilariousness, hilarity,
     ho-ho, horselaugh, jocularity, jocundity, jolliness, jollity,
     joviality, joy, joyfulness, joyousness, laugh, laughing, levity,
     merriment, merriness, mirth, mirthfulness, outburst of laughter,
     peal of laughter, risibility, roar of laughter, shout,
     shout of laughter, shriek, snicker, snickering, snigger,
     sniggering, snort, tee-hee, titter, yuck, yuk-yuk
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  LAUGHTER, n.  An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the
  features and accompanied by inarticulate noises.  It is infectious
  and, though intermittent, incurable.  Liability to attacks of laughter
  is one of the characteristics distinguishing man from the animals --
  these being not only inaccessible to the provocation of his example,
  but impregnable to the microbes having original jurisdiction in
  bestowal of the disease.  Whether laughter could be imparted to
  animals by inoculation from the human patient is a question that has
  not been answered by experimentation.  Dr. Meir Witchell holds that
  the infection character of laughter is due to the instantaneous
  fermentation of _sputa_ diffused in a spray.  From this peculiarity he
  names the disorder _Convulsio spargens_.