HA-HA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ha-ha mean? 

• HA-HA (noun)
  The noun HA-HA has 2 senses:

1. a loud laugh that sounds like a horse neighing

2. a ditch with one side being a retaining wall; used to divide lands without defacing the landscape

  Familiarity information: HA-HA used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HA-HA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A loud laugh that sounds like a horse neighing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

ha-ha; haw-haw; hee-haw; horselaugh

Hypernyms ("ha-ha" is a kind of...):

laugh; laughter (the sound of laughing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A ditch with one side being a retaining wall; used to divide lands without defacing the landscape

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

ha-ha; haw-haw; sunk fence

Hypernyms ("ha-ha" is a kind of...):

ditch (a long narrow excavation in the earth)

 Context examples 

You will hurt yourself, Miss Bertram, she cried; you will certainly hurt yourself against those spikes; you will tear your gown; you will be in danger of slipping into the ha-ha.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I have looked across the ha-ha till I am weary.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But unluckily that iron gate, that ha-ha, give me a feeling of restraint and hardship.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

They would go to one end of it, in the line they were then in—for there was a straight green walk along the bottom by the side of the ha-ha—and perhaps turn a little way in some other direction, if it seemed likely to assist them, and be back in a few minutes.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

A few steps farther brought them out at the bottom of the very walk they had been talking of; and standing back, well shaded and sheltered, and looking over a ha-ha into the park, was a comfortable-sized bench, on which they all sat down.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)