What's the difference between laugh and ridicule?

Laugh


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To show mirth, satisfaction, or derision, by peculiar movement of the muscles of the face, particularly of the mouth, causing a lighting up of the face and eyes, and usually accompanied by the emission of explosive or chuckling sounds from the chest and throat; to indulge in laughter.
  • (v. i.) Fig.: To be or appear gay, cheerful, pleasant, mirthful, lively, or brilliant; to sparkle; to sport.
  • (v. t.) To affect or influence by means of laughter or ridicule.
  • (v. t.) To express by, or utter with, laughter; -- with out.
  • (n.) An expression of mirth peculiar to the human species; the sound heard in laughing; laughter. See Laugh, v. i.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Perhaps they can laugh it all off more easily, but only to the extent that the show doesn’t instill terror for how this country’s greatness will be inflicted on them next.
  • (2) Unlikely, he laughs: "We were founded on the idea of distributing information as far as possible."
  • (3) If this is what 70s stoners were laughing at, it feels like they’ve already become acquiescent, passive parts of media-relayed consumer society; precursors of the cathode-ray-frazzled pop-culture exegetists of Tarantino and Kevin Smith in the 90s.
  • (4) He shrugs his shoulders and laughs: "And they call us thieves!"
  • (5) It’s useless if we try and fight with them through force, so we try and fight with them through humour.” “There is a saying that laughing is the best form of medicine.
  • (6) During well-coordinated neurological and psychiatric treatment the laughing seizures (spontaneous, event-related, psychogenic) decreased and a considerable improvement in psychiatric and psychosocial problems was attained.
  • (7) Keepy-uppys should be a simple skill for a professional footballer, so when Tom Ince clocked himself in the face with the ball while preparing to take a corner early in the second half, even he couldn't help but laugh.
  • (8) Having long been accustomed to being the butt of other politicians' jokes, however, Farage is relishing what may yet become the last laugh.
  • (9) "I rang my wife to tell her," he says, "and she just laughed."
  • (10) Best friends since school, they sound like an old married couple, finishing each other's sentences, constantly referring to the other by name and making each other laugh; deep sonorous, belly laughs.
  • (11) Fields said: "The assertions that Tom Cruise likened making a movie to being at war in Afghanistan is a gross distortion of the record... What Tom said, laughingly, was that sometimes, 'That's what it feels like.'"
  • (12) I present this to Rudd, who laughs and asks if there was any overlap between those who wanted sex and those who wanted to start filming.
  • (13) He made me laugh and cry, and his courage in writing about what he was going through was sometimes quite overwhelming.
  • (14) I think the “horror and outrage” Roberts complains of were more like hilarity, and the story still makes me laugh (as do many others on Mumsnet, which is full of jokes as well as acronyms for everything).
  • (15) Patients with bilateral forebrain disease may commonly manifest the syndrome of pathologic laughing and weeping.
  • (16) She could still really make us laugh,” her mother says.
  • (17) He laughs: "I've had a few guys buck up against me, but that's all right because some of us enjoy the bucking."
  • (18) Intricate is the key word, as screwball dialogue plays off layered wordplay, recurring jokes and referential callbacks to build to the sort of laughs that hit you twice: an initial belly laugh followed, a few minutes later, by the crafty laugh of recognition.
  • (19) Harry Kane laughs off one-season wonder tag after Alan Shearer pep talk Read more “He is a great role model.
  • (20) "Everyone calls him the Socialist Worker Padre," one bland senior cleric told me with a sly and dismissive laugh.

Ridicule


Definition:

  • (n.) An object of sport or laughter; a laughingstock; a laughing matter.
  • (n.) Remarks concerning a subject or a person designed to excite laughter with a degree of contempt; wit of that species which provokes contemptuous laughter; disparagement by making a person an object of laughter; banter; -- a term lighter than derision.
  • (n.) Quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.
  • (v. t.) To laugh at mockingly or disparagingly; to awaken ridicule toward or respecting.
  • (a.) Ridiculous.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Historically, what made SNL’s campaign coverage so necessary was its ability to highlight the subtle absurdities of the election and exaggerate the ridiculous.
  • (2) It is ridiculous,' says Li Rui, a former secretary of Mao Zedong.
  • (3) No doubt it was intended as a bold and graphic way of presenting the Iranian nuclear threat, but much of the initial response – on Twitter, at least – was ridicule.
  • (4) "It would be ridiculous to encourage shale gas when in reality its greenhouse gas footprint could be as bad as or worse than coal.
  • (5) He says he won't respond to the latest ridiculous rumor of Republican action.
  • (6) At the 2nd stage, as the self-esteem lowered and negative attitude of other schoolchildren arose, the neurotic disorders emerged alongside with prevalent depressive reactions and fear of getting bad marks and being an object of ridicule at school.
  • (7) Once I’d checked she was OK I said, ‘Stop crying now.’ ” So it’s about managing emotions: ‘I’m going to need you to get a grip.’” “If you’ve got interesting points to make about the devaluing of serious words like bullying and depression, why make them in a way that sounds like you’re ridiculing people who are suffering?” I ask.
  • (8) Walden said the comparison with Comet was “ridiculous”.
  • (9) Well, Machado put those skills on display on Sunday, and this is an excuse to bring you his ridiculous play against the Yankees.
  • (10) Alamgir was ridiculed on social media after he told the BBC that the building may have collapsed after opposition activists enforcing a general strike "pushed at the gate and columns of the building".
  • (11) "The ANC pretence that we don't have a social crisis in this country is quite ridiculous.
  • (12) So we started asking them ridiculous questions about being single," says Lucas, "and the sheer number of misunderstandings about each other's lives felt like comedic material."
  • (13) "Rio Ferdinand's decision-making, the chances he has taken, it is ridiculous.
  • (14) It's ridiculous, because there will soon be a massive public outcry about how there's nowhere for kids to go.
  • (15) Westminster wits had taken to ridiculing the rebel movement against Gordon Brown as a "peasants' revolt", a cohort without influence.
  • (16) To create a new bank, which we understand is an option, which could be called Glyn Mills, is ridiculously back to the future.
  • (17) JD, Oxford More than three months to get a replacement debit card is ridiculous, and we agree that you have been more than patient.
  • (18) The Kiev-appointed governor, Serhiy Taruta, has dismissed this poll as ridiculous, pointing out that most of the region's 2.4 million voters won't take part.
  • (19) Liberal Democrats and Conservatives today ridiculed a request by Labour to broadcasters to focus more on policy analysis.
  • (20) Edge: Cardinals Bench Shane Robinson made a name for himself in Game Four of the NLCS with a pinch-hit home run and actually finished the NLCS with an OPS of 1.278, which is completely ridiculous and tops any of his teammates by a country mile.