Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of using words, gestures, images, or other products of expression to evoke laughter or contemptuous feelings regarding a person or thing.
  • noun The words or other products of expression used in this way.
  • transitive verb To expose to ridicule; make fun of.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A corruption of reticule, formerly common.
  • noun Mocking or jesting words intended to excite laughter, with more or less contempt, at the expense of the person or thing of whom they are spoken or written; also, action or gesture designed to produce the same effect.
  • noun An object of mockery or contemptuous jesting.
  • noun Ridiculousness.
  • noun Synonyms Derision, mockery, gibe, jeer, sneer. See satire, ludicrous, and banter, verb
  • To treat with ridicule; treat with contemptuous merriment; represent as deserving of contemptuous mirth; mock; make sport or game of; deride.
  • Synonyms Deride, Mock, etc. (see taunt), jeer at, scoff at, scout; rally, make fun of, lampoon. See the noun.
  • To bring ridicule upon a person or thing; make some one or something ridiculous; cause contemptuous laughter.
  • Ridiculous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To laugh at mockingly or disparagingly; to awaken ridicule toward or respecting.
  • adjective obsolete Ridiculous.
  • noun An object of sport or laughter; a laughingstock; a laughing matter.
  • noun 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.
  • noun obsolete Quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive to criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of
  • noun derision; mocking or humiliating words or behaviour
  • adjective obsolete ridiculous

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun language or behavior intended to mock or humiliate
  • noun the act of deriding or treating with contempt
  • verb subject to laughter or ridicule

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Latin rīdiculum, joke, from neuter of rīdiculus, laughable; see ridiculous.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin ridiculus ("laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous"), from ridere ("to laugh").

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