LAUGH, verb intransitive l'aff. [Heb.] 1. To make the noise and exhibit the features which are characteristic of mirth in the human species. Violent laughter is accompanied with a shaking of the sides, and all laughter expels breath from the lungs. 2. In poetry, to be gay; to appear gay, cheerful, pleasant, lively or brilliant. Then laughs the childish year with flow'rets crown'd. And o'er the foaming bowl, the laughing wine. To laugh at, to ridicule; to treat with some degree of contempt. No fool to laugh at, which he valued more. To laugh to scorn, to deride; to treat with mockery, contempt and scorn. Nehemiah 2:19. LAUGH, noun l'aff. An expression of mirth peculiar to the human species. But feigns a laugh to see me search around, and by that laugh the willing fair is found.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI