▪ I. laughter, n.1
(ˈlɑːftə(r), ˈlæf-)
Forms: 1 hleahtor, hlehter, 1, 3 leahter, 3 lahter, lehter, leihter, 4 laghter, laȝter, laght(t)ir, lauȝtur, lauhter, leiȝter, 5 laghtur, laughtir, (laughtre), 5–6 lauchtir, 6 laughtur, Sc. lau-, lawchter, 4– laughter.
[OE. hleahtor str. masc. = OHG. hlahtar (MHG. lahter, whence collective gelehter, mod.G. gelächter), ON. hlátr (MSw. later, Da. latter):—OTeut. *hlahtro-z, f. root *hlah-: see laugh v.]
1. a. The action of laughing; occas. a manner of laughing. Homeric laughter (see Iliad i. 599, Odyss. xx. 346).
| Beowulf 611 (Gr.) Ðær wæs hæleþa hleahtor. c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. xxxiv. 230 Hie habbað swæ micle mede oðerra monna godra weorca,..swæ we habbað ðæs hleahtres, ðonne we hlihhað gliᵹmonna unnyttes cræftes. a 1050 Liber Scintill. lx. (1889) 171 Þurh leahter stunt wyrcð scylda. c 1205 Lay. 3045 Mid gomene & mid lehtre [c 1275 lihtre]. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 1451 Now es laghter and now es gretyng. 1388 Wyclif Job viii. 21 Til thi mouth be fillid with leiȝter. a 1400–50 Alexander 96 A lowde laȝter he loȝe. 14.. How Good Wife taught Dau. 15 in Barbour's Bruce, Nocht lowd of lauchtir, na of langage crouss. 1535 Coverdale Ps. cxxv. 3 Then shal oure mouth be fylled with laughter. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 283 When I behold there undiscrete behauours,..I cannot but burst out into laughter. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 80 O I am stab'd with laughter. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. i. vi. 27 Much Laughter at the defects of others, is a signe of Pusillanimity. 1713 Steele Guardian No. 29 ¶25 Laughter is a vent of any sudden joy. 1754 Chatham Lett. Nephew v. 35 It is rare to see in any one a graceful laughter. 1793 Holcroft Lavater's Physiog. xxx. 148 The physiognomy of laughter would be the best of elementary books for the knowledge of man. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. ii. xcvii, Laughter, vainly loud, False to the heart, distorts the hollow cheek. 1826 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 174 The..hubbub o' curses, endin' in shouts o' deevilish lauchter. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola xii, In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause. 1866 R. Chambers Ess. Ser. ii. 180 Man..has a faculty of the ludicrous in his mental organisation, and muscles in the face..to express the sensation in..laughter. |
| Personified. 1632 Milton L'Allegro 32 Laughter holding both his sides. |
| transf. 1825 Longfellow Spirit Poetry 16 The silver brook..Slips down through moss-grown stones with endless laughter. |
b. An instance of this, a laugh. Now
rare.
| 971 Blickl. Hom. 59 Hwær beoþ þonne..þa unᵹemetlican hleahtras. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 149 Forlete lahtres, and idele songes. c 1205 Lay. 1219 His lauedi Diana hine leofliche biheolde mid wnsume leahtren. a 1225 Ancr. R. 156 To underuongen flesliche leihtren. 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1217 Þus he bourded aȝayn with mony a blyþe laȝter. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 2673 With lowde laghttirs one lofte for lykynge of byrdez. 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 78 Better is the last smyle, than the fyrst laughter. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 57 b, Then with a greate laughter (he saide) they would have it so. 1651 Life Father Sarpi (1676) 10 Whereat the Duke breaking into a laughter, replyed. 1692 R. L'Estrange Fables, Life æsop (1708) 8 Whereupon æsop brake out into a Loud Laughter. 1775 Goldsm. Scarron II. 22 They broke out into a laughter for four or five several times successively. 1840 Browning Sordello iii. 98 Exchanging quick low laughters. |
† c. In various obsolete phrases.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 212 To bringen o leihtre hore ontfule louerd. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 1120 (1169) She for laughter wende for to dye. a 1375 Lay Folks Mass Bk. App. iv. 324 He barst on lauhtre. c 1400 Destr. Troy 5054 Diamede full depely drough out a laughter. a 1400–50 Alexander 5303 Þan has þat hende him by þe hand & hent vp a laȝtir. a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 3400 The Kyng tooke up a laughtir, and went his way. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. cxxviii. (1482) 107 The kynge..a grete laughter toke vp. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scotl. II. viii. 125 Al war lyk to cleiue of lauchter. 1608 R. Armin Nest Ninn. (1842) 32 Shee forgetting modesty, gapte out a laughter. |
d. Used for: A subject or matter for laughter.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. ii. 101 It would be argument for a Weeke, Laughter for a Moneth, and a good iest for euer. 1601 ― Jul. C. iv. iii. 114 Hath Cassius liu'd To be but Mirth and Laughter to his Brutus? 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 184 All his Annie's fears, Save, as his Annie's, were a laughter to him. ― Aylmer's F. 498 A mockery to the yeomen over ale, And laughter to their lords. |
¶ 2. An alleged name for a company of ostlers.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans F vj b, A Laughtre of Ostelores. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
laughter-book,
laughter-burst,
laughter-maker;
laughter-dimpled,
laughter-lighted,
laughter-lit,
laughter-loving,
laughter-stirring,
laughter-twinkling adjs.;
† laughter-crack vb.;
laughter-line, one of the small wrinkles at the corners of the eyes or mouth supposedly formed by years of intermittent laughter.
| 1851 C. de Chatelain (title) A *Laughter-Book for Little Folk. |
| 1868 Ld. Houghton Select. fr. Wks. 208 Each repeated *laughter-burst. |
| 1634 Heywood Lancash. Witches ii. Wks. 1874 IV. 188 Our sides are charm'd, or else this stuffe Would *laughter-cracke them. |
| 1887 G. Meredith Ballads & P. 113 A *laughter-dimpled countenance. |
| 1813 Scott Trierm. i. xviii, *Laughter-lighted eyes. |
| 1938 M. Allingham Fashion in Shrouds xii. 180 His light grey eyes were entirely without humour in spite of the *laughter-lines beside them. 1950 Vogue Beauty Bk. Autumn 26 You should watch for wrinkles—expression lines that run from nose to mouth, laughter lines round the eyes and frown lines on the forehead. 1971 R. Falkirk Chill Factor iii. 35 Laughter-lines still cobwebbed the corners of his eyes. |
| a 1847 Eliza Cook Rory O' More vi, Apollo with *laughter-lit face. |
| 1592 Daniel Delia, Sonn. x, Thou..*Laughter-louing Goddesse, worldly pleasures Queen. 1807–8 W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 126 One of those confounded good thoughts struck his laughter-loving brain. |
| 1850 Grote Greece ii. lxvii. VIII. 456 The professional jester or *laughter-maker at the banquets of rich Athenian citizens. |
| 1877 Dowden Shaks. Prim. vi. 66 *Laughter-stirring surprises. |
| 1826 Hor. Smith Tor Hill (1838) II. 215 The..*laughter-twinkling eyes of the Frenchman. |
Hence
ˈlaughterful,
ˈlaughterless adjs.| 1825 Blackw. Mag. XVIII. 440 No unfit haunting place For things of..laughterless beatitude. 1897 Ibid. Nov. 680/1 The brute..takes himself with the most laughterless gravity. 1898 Sat. Rev. 9 July 39 A teacher as rich and laughterful, as mendacious and corrupting as life itself. |
▪ II. laughter, n.2 dial. (
ˈlɑːftə(r),
ˈlæf-)
Also 7
laiter, 8
Sc. lachter, 8–9
lafter, 9
dial. latter,
lawter.
[a. ON. *lahtr, láttr:—OTeut. *lahtro{supm}, f. *lag-, root of lay v.] The whole number of eggs laid by a fowl before she is ready to sit.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 298 Pullets lay more than old hennes, but they be lesse, especially the first and last of one laiter. 1703 Thoresby Let. to Ray s.v. (E.D.S.), A hen lays her laughter; that is, all the eggs she will lay that time. 1787 Grose Prov. Gloss., Lafter [printed Laster] or Lawter, thirteen eggs to set a hen. 1790 Morison Poems 68 Her [sc. a goose] lachter's laid with which she's set. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Latter. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Lafter, the number of eggs laid by a hen before she begins to wish to sit. |