▪ I. chuckle, v.
(ˈtʃʌk(ə)l)
[Echoic: akin to chuck v.1, with the dim. and freq. ending -le. Cf. also chokeling.]
† 1. intr. ‘To laugh vehemently; to laugh convulsively’ (J.). Cf. checkle. Obs.
| 1598 Florio, Collepolarsi d'allegrezza, to chuckle, to chuck or rouze ones selfe to gladnes and mirth. 1742 Richardson Pamela III. 110 Such Liberties of Speech as they would saucily chuckle at. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. xxiv, It would be difficult to find one who has heartily chuckled at it. |
2. To laugh in a suppressed manner; to laugh to oneself; to make or show inarticulate signs of exultation or triumph.
| 1803 Syd. Smith Wks. 25 A man, who would..set the house in a blaze, that he might chuckle over the splendour. 1841 D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 266 A tale which some antiquaries still chuckle over. 1850 Kingsley Alt. Locke iii. (1876) 41 Then he lighted his pipe and chuckled away in silence. 1855 Tennyson Maud i. iv. v, We whisper, and hint, and chuckle, and grin at a brother's shame. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet i. iii. (1883) 16 He went off chuckling. |
b. trans. Also chuckle out, to utter with a chuckle.
| 1820 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) II. v. 120 Whatever you praise to Jeffrey he directly chuckles out some error which you did not perceive. 1876 M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. III. 9 Ah, but they're all glad to get a husband..chuckled the farmer. |
3. To cluck or cackle as a hen; also with compl. (trans.) to call (together) with a chuckle.
| a 1700 Dryden (J.) If these birds are within distance, here's that will chuckle 'em together. 1833 Tennyson Goose vii, It cluttered here, it chuckled there. |
| fig. c 1700 Gentl. Instructed (1732) 117 (D.) She chuckles together a whole covy of essences and perfumes. |
4. trans. To express regret for by the inarticulate sound 'ts! 'ts!
| 1681 Dryden Sp. Friar ii. iii, Your confessor..must chuckle you, and moan you. |
5. nonce-use. Applied to the gurgling sound made by water in coming out of a bottle.
| 1865 Swinburne Poems & Ball., Two Dreams 363 As when water slips Out of a beak-mouthed vessel with faint noise And chuckles in the narrowed throat. |
6. Curling. See quot.
| 1831 Blackw. Mag. XXX. 971 To chuckle, a term used upon the Ayrshire ice, is to make a succession of in-wicks up a port to a certain object. |
▪ II. chuckle, n.1
(ˈtʃʌk(ə)l)
[f. chuckle v.1]
1. An act of chuckling; a laugh of triumph and exultation: formerly applied to a loud laugh, but now chiefly to a suppressed and inarticulate sound by which exultation is shown.
| a 1754 Fielding Charac. Men Wks. 1784 IX. 411 That honest, hearty, loud chuckle, which shakes the sides of aldermen and squires. 1820 Keats Isabel lxii, With melodious chuckle in the strings Of her low voice. 1841 Miall in Nonconf. I. 242 Enjoy your chuckle, gentlemen. 1842 H. Rogers Ess. I. i. 38 As different..as the innocent laugh of childhood from the malignant chuckle of a demon. 1863 Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. viii. 201 She is in a perpetual chuckle of merry malice. 1869 Trollope He Knew vi, With a whistle..and a little low chuckle of laughter. |
b. Chuckling, exultation, glee.
| 1837 Syd. Smith Let. Archd. Singleton Wks. 1859 II. 284/2 Viscount Melbourne, in high chuckle. 1883 E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream of Leic. 83 A great source of chuckle..to the agriculturists of the district. |
2. The call of some birds to their young; the cluck or cackle of a hen.
| 1773 Barrington Singing of Birds in Phil. Trans. LXIII. 255 The nestling linnet retained the call of its own species, or what the bird-catchers call the linnet's chuckle, from some resemblance to that word when pronounced. |
▪ III. chuckle, a. and n.2
(ˈtʃʌk(ə)l)
[perh. related to, or in use associated with, chuck n.4: cf. -le.]
A. adj. Big and clumsy (?) like a chuck of firewood, blockish: applied contemptuously to the head, and occas. to other parts.
| 1721 D'Urfey Athenian Jilt in New Operas 164 The Dew laps from his chuckle Chin That had with gorging pampered been. 1863 Robson Bards Tyne 343 The lubbart wi' the chuckle heed. 1865 Kingsley Herew. xiii, Her great chuckle head, and drooping hind quarters. |
B. n. A big hulking fellow, a chuckle-head.
| 1731–1800 Bailey, Chuckle, a rattling, noisy, empty Fellow. 1817 Frere Whistlecraft's Nat. Poem ii. xlv, And thus disabled that stupendous chuckle. |
C. Comb. chuckle-pate, block-head (also attrib.).
| 1820 Blackw. Mag. VII. 677 And the pence were put down by the chucklepate many. |