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A sacrifice of a hundred oxen or cattle at the same time; hence, the sacrifice or slaughter of any large number of victims. Slaughtered hecatombs around them bleed. Addison. More than a human hecatomb. Byron.

harangue; to preach. L'Estrange. -- To hold in, to restrain one's self; as, he wanted to laugh and could hardly hold in. -- To hold off, to keep at a distance. -- To hold on, to keep fast hold; to continue; to go on. "The trade held on for many years," Swift. -- To hold out, to last; to endure; to continue; to main…

he imagination which gives to ideas an incongruous or fantastic turn, and tends to excite laughter or mirth by ludicrous images or representations; a playful fancy; facetiousness. For thy sake I admit That a Scot may have humor, I'd almost said wit. Goldsmith. A great deal of excellent humor was expended on the perplex…

Full of humor; jocular; exciting laughter; playful; as, a humorous story or author; a humorous aspect.

like, an idiot; characterized by idiocy; foolish; fatuous; as, an idiotic person, speech, laugh, or action.

xcessive; extravagant; unreasonable; as, immoderate demands; immoderate grief; immoderate laughter. So every scope by the immoderate use Turns to restraint. Shak.

unavoidably; certainly. Inevitably thou shalt die. Milton. How inevitably does immoderate laughter end in a sigh! South.

g easily diffused or spread; sympathetic; readily communicated; as, infectious mirth. The laughter was so genuine as to be infectious. W. Black.

insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions, and thereby mislead the judgment. Locke. Horace laughs to shame all follies and insinuates virtue, rather by familiar examples than by the severity of precepts. Dryden.

of interjecting or throwing between; also, that which is interjected. The interjection of laughing. Bacon.

Involving, or accompanied by, mutual slaughter; mutually destructive. Internecine quarrels, horrible tumults, stain the streets with blood. Motley.

Mutual slaughter or destruction; massacre. [Obs.] Sir M. Hale.

An interval. [R.] And a' shall laugh without intervallums. Shak. In one of these intervalla. Chillingworth.

That which intoxicates; an intoxicating agent; as, alcohol, opium, and laughing gas are intoxicants.

The act of laughing at another; derision. This being spoken scepticè, or by way of irrision. Chapman.

he Falkland Islands. They make a noise like the braying of an ass; -- hence the name. -- Laughing jackass. (Zoöl.) See under Laughing.

The object of laughter or sport; a laughingstock. Then let me be your jest; I deserve it. Shak. In jest, for mere sport or diversion; not in truth and reality; not in earnest. And given in earnest what I begged in jest. Shak. -- Jest book, a book containing a collection of jests, jokes, and amusing anecdotes; a Joe Mil…

Something said for the sake of exciting a laugh; something witty or sportive (commonly indicating more of hilarity or humor than jest); a jest; a witticism; as, to crack good-natured jokes. And gentle dullness ever loves a joke. Pope. Or witty joke our airy senses moves To pleasant laughter. Gay.

A fit of coughing; also, a convulsive fit of laughter. [Scot.]

One who slaughters worn-out horses and sells their flesh for dog's meat. [Eng.]