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Fitted to excite ridicule; absurd and laughable; unworthy of serious consideration; as, a ridiculous dress or behavior. Agricola, discerning that those little targets and unwieldy glaives ill pointed would soon become ridiculous against the thrust and close, commanded three Batavian cohorts . . . to draw up and come to…

A little wave or undulation; a sound such as is made by little waves; as, a ripple of laughter. Ripple grass. (Bot.) See Ribwort. -- Ripple marks, a system of parallel ridges on sand, produced by wind, by the current of a steam, or by the agitation of wind waves; also (Geol.), a system of parallel ridges on the surfac…

ving ripples; as, ripply water; hence, resembling the sound of rippling water; as, ripply laughter; a ripply cove. Keats.

Having the faculty or power of laughing; disposed to laugh. Laughing is our busines, . . . it has been made the definition of man that he is risible. Dr. H. More.

Pertaining to, or producing, laughter; as, the risorial muscles.

To laugh out loudly and continuously; as, the hearers roared at his jokes.

a rout about. Sterne. "My child, it is not well," I said, "Among the graves to shout; To laugh and play among the dead, And make this noisy rout." Trench.

Salience; onslaught. [Obs.] "So fierce saliaunce." Spenser.

sailor; -- usually qualified by old. [Colloq.] Around the door are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts. Hawthorne.

sincere; hence, derisive, mocking, malignant, or bitterly sarcastic; -- applied only to a laugh, smile, or some facial semblance of gayety. Where strained, sardonic smiles are glozing still, And grief is forced to laugh against her will. Sir H. Wotton. The scornful, ferocious, sardonic grin of a bloody ruffian. Burke.…

ngregation looked on in silence, the better class scandalized, and the lower orders, some laughing, others backing the soldier or the minister, as their fancy dictated. Sir W. Scott.

mpt; to disdain. "He thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone." Esther iii. 6. -- To laugh to scorn, to deride; to make a mock of; to redicule as contemptible.

jocose in language; scurrilous; as, scurrile taunts. The wretched affectation of scurrile laughter. Cowley. A scurrile or obscene jest will better advance you at the court of Charles than father's ancient name. Sir W. Scott.

A seat; a site; a place where sovereign power is exercised. [Obs.] Chaucer. Jove laughed on Venus from his sovereign see. Spenser.

as for a breach of duty, trust, or the like; to betray. You would have sold your king to slaughter. Shak.

slavery; bondage; hence, a state of slavish dependence. You would have sold your king to slaughter, His princes and his peers to servitude. Shak. A splendid servitude; . . . for he that rises up early, and goeSouth.

A place for slaughtering animals for meat. To make a shambles of the parliament house. Shak.

the clear, musical tone of silver; soft and clear in sound; as, silvery voices; a silvery laugh. Silvery iron (Metal.), a peculiar light-gray fine-grained cast iron, usually obtained from clay iron ore.

To strike down; to slaughter. [Prov. Eng.]

inks, two bars or buttons linked together, and used to fasten a cuff or wristband. -- To laugh in the sleeve, to laugh privately or unperceived, especially while apparently preserving a grave or serious demeanor toward the person or persons laughed at; that is, perhaps, originally, by hiding the face in the wide sleev…