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An expression of mirth peculiar to the human species; the sound heard in laughing; laughter. See Laugh, v. i. And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind. Goldsmith. That man is a bad man who has not within him the power of a hearty laugh. F. W. Robertson.

Not laughing; without laughter.

of Leap. [Obs.] And, laughing, lope into a tree. Spenser.

Laughingly gay; overflowing with good humor and good spirits; jovial; inclined to laughter or play ; sportive. They drank, and were merry with him. Gen. xliii. 34. I am never merry when I hear sweet music. Shak.

ed Would have cast down and trod in dirty mire. Spenser. Mire crow (Zoöl.), the pewit, or laughing gull. [Prov. Eng.] -- Mire drum, the European bittern. [Prov. Eng.]

sulting or contemptuous action or speech; contemptuous merriment; derision; ridicule. The laughingstock of fortune's mockeries. Spenser.

The laughing falcon. See under laughing.

ate, but forming a well known series of salts, viz., the nitrites. -- Nitrous oxide. See Laughing gas.

To surpass or outdo in laughing. Dryden.

The European black-headed, or laughing, gull (Xema ridibundus). See under Laughing.

The laughing gull. [Prov. Eng.]

An object of ridicule or scorn; a laughingstock. Shak.

oxides having the lowest proportion of oxygen. See Proto-, 2 (b). protoxide of nitrogen, laughing gas, now called hyponitrous oxideNO. See under Laughing.

Laughing; laughable; exciting gayety; gay; merry; delightful to the view, as a landscape. In such cases the sublimity must be drawn from the other sources, with a strict caution, howewer, against anything light and riant. Burke.

Laughing. [R.] Thackeray.

An object of sport or laughter; a laughingstock; a laughing matter. [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries. Buckle. To the people . . . but a trifle, to the king but a ridicule. Foxe.

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.

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

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.

Relaxed; hence; merry; cheerful. [R.] A brow solute, and ever-laughing eye. Young.