What's the difference between derision and laughter?

Derision


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of deriding, or the state of being derided; mockery; scornful or contemptuous treatment which holds one up to ridicule.
  • (n.) An object of derision or scorn; a laughing-stock.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In fact the then president, Amadou Toumani Touré, known as "ATT" more out of derision than any sense of affection, was viewed as deeply corrupt and incapable of delivering the changes that Mali – still one of the five least-developed countries in the world – needed.
  • (2) Spanish football fans’ habit of waving white hankies tends to be derisive, signifying that they wish a hapless manager to be put out of their club’s misery.
  • (3) Waitrose evokes strong opinions: from sniffy derision about the supermarket's perceived airs and graces to expressions of joy from middle-class incomers when their gentrified area is blessed with a branch.
  • (4) Striker Gonzalo Higuaín was also the victim of fan derision when he came on to replace Karim Benzema in the second half, but Karanka insisted the Argentinian still has the backing of the club.
  • (5) And at the same time, speaking to black America, he branded Frazier an Uncle Tom, turning him into an object of derision and scorn.
  • (6) "I think 20 millisieverts is safe but I don't think it's good," said Itaru Watanabe of the education ministry, drawing howls of derision from the audience of participants.
  • (7) At which point – obviously – you reach the stubborn limits of the debate: from even the most supposedly imaginative Labour people as much as any Tories, such heresies would presumably be greeted with sneering derision.
  • (8) The launch of a Greene King “craft” range in 2013 brought angry howls of derision .
  • (9) He has been derided in these pages, but that derision is surpassed by the venomous hatred of the Daily Mail , which loathes the Cameron government in any case and particularly despised Mitchell in his previous job.
  • (10) And yet for someone confronting futility and derision, he appears remarkably cheerful.
  • (11) For reasons which are unfathomable Daniel became a target for derision, abuse and systematic cruelty."
  • (12) The autonomy of sport must be guaranteed.” After attracting derision for last week appearing to suggest that football could bring peace to the Crimea through the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Blatter returned to the subject in an otherwise low-key address.
  • (13) You couldn’t make it up, could you?” He hoots with derisive laughter.
  • (14) Another theory, which goes back in some form to ancient Greek philosophy, argues that all laughter is an expression of superiority: it is, in other words, always an aggressive response, a form of derision or mockery (laughing at, rather than with).
  • (15) The AU delegation - made up of South Africa , Uganda, Mauritania, Congo-Brazzaville and Mali - left the talks looking glum, without making a public comment and to the derisive shouts of the protesters outside the hotel.
  • (16) Gold swiftly retweeted the picture, prompting widespread derision, before explaining his error by claiming he had not realised it was an image of Antonio but while the winger was not offended, the label stuck.
  • (17) The explanation was greeted with derision by Kenyans on Twitter.
  • (18) He was very firm of purpose and yet a gay, exuberant, laughing man – gloom, cynicism, derision, despair, all peculiarly Irish devils, could not hold up their heads in his company.
  • (19) But the easy derision for those public figures probably grows from the sense that music, acting and even reporting all are easy pursuits.
  • (20) Additional information provided indicated that the most helpful categories of interventions included (1) validation; (2) advocacy; (3) empathic understanding; and (4) absence of derision or contempt.

Laughter


Definition:

  • (v. i.) A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the face, particularly of the lips, with a peculiar expression of the eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction, or derision, and usually attended by a sonorous and interrupted expulsion of air from the lungs. See Laugh, v. i.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "Enuresis risoria" or "giggle incontinence" is a particular condition characterized by a sudden, involuntary, uncontrollable and complete emptying of the bladder during giggling or hearty laughter.
  • (2) Their hearty laughter far surpassed any private hopes of entertaining this endearingly stodgy bunch.
  • (3) It’s even slower than the public service” (much laughter) “and it’s all stage managed”.
  • (4) Foreign aid, NHS queues, he pressed hot button prejudices, interrupted other speakers, his quick wit won both laughter and applause.
  • (5) It felt just amazing.” But there was laughter when it was suggested that she might extend that record by a few days with gold in the 5,000m.
  • (6) "Thank you for coming, despite some of the hiccups we have had," Tutu said to laughter and applause at St George's Cathedral, Cape Town.
  • (7) Earlier Davies had raised laughter in the Grimond Room in Westminster's Portcullis House when he asked the judge, recently promoted to president of the Queen's Bench Division, whether he had any "regrets" about his report.
  • (8) Perhaps the only thing Katie does get to take home is her antipathy to laughter.
  • (9) When President Obama stands up and says - as he did when he addressed the nation in February 2011 about Libya - that "the United States will continue to stand up for freedom, stand up for justice, and stand up for the dignity of all people", it should trigger nothing but a scornful fit of laughter, not credulous support (by the way, not that anyone much cares any more, but here's what is happening after the Grand Success of the Libya Intervention: "Tribal and historical loyalties still run deep in Libya, which is struggling to maintain central government control in a country where armed militia wield real power and meaningful systems of law and justice are lacking after the crumbling of Gaddafi's eccentric personal rule").
  • (10) He is part of a travelling circus, certainly, but the laughter stopped a little while ago.
  • (11) Behind us we could still hear shooting, the screams, the laughter of the bastard as he shot, and his shout to us: "You won't get away!"
  • (12) Laughter is a partly involuntary act involving complex pathways in the central nervous system.
  • (13) That is why I am not the leader of the Labour party,” he said, to laughter and a round of applause.
  • (14) One patient had precocious puberty, epileptic laughter, and abnormal behavior; the other had cerebral seizures.
  • (15) This is what we imagined: the becalmed beauty of the Whitsunday Passage, that spectacular collection of islands protectively nestled inside the Great Barrier Reef, safe from prevailing winds; bright blue languid days gliding over turquoise waters, taking turns at the tiller in our togs; finding our own private cove as the sun goes down; diving into warm pristine waters; the tinkling of intimate laughter; the fizz of champagne and the sizzle of prawns on the barbie.
  • (16) There was laughter, but the room at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles fell silent as it appeared Foster, 50, had a serious point to make.
  • (17) But, she appeared to leave the door open to a possible eventual return, adding to laughter from the crowd that "everyone always says that when they leave these jobs".
  • (18) In a move that sparked laughter and jeers in the Commons, the shadow chancellor pulled out a copy of the Quotations from Chairman Mao to make a point about George Osborne’s attempts to sell off state assets to the Chinese.
  • (19) With the eight lanes of France’s most famous avenue cleared of all traffic on Paris’s first car-free day , the usual cacophony of car-revving and thundering motorbike engines had given way to the squeak of bicycle wheels, the clatter of skateboards, the laughter of children on rollerblades and even the gentle rustling of wind in the trees.
  • (20) Nanu Nanu LG x August 12, 2014 Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) Rest in Peace+Laughter Robin Williams.