LAUGH AT

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does laugh at mean? 

• LAUGH AT (verb)
  The verb LAUGH AT has 1 sense:

1. subject to laughter or ridicule

  Familiarity information: LAUGH AT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LAUGH AT (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Subject to laughter or ridicule

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

blackguard; guy; jest at; laugh at; make fun; poke fun; rib; ridicule; roast

Context example:

His former students roasted the professor at his 60th birthday

Hypernyms (to "laugh at" is one way to...):

bemock; mock (treat with contempt)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "laugh at"):

tease (mock or make fun of playfully)

lampoon; satirise; satirize (ridicule with satire)

debunk; expose (expose while ridiculing; especially of pretentious or false claims and ideas)

stultify (cause to appear foolish)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

I knew you'd laugh at them, but I couldn't refuse, she was so anxious to do something.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

You used to laugh at me for it then, Art.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He even went out of his way to raise a laugh at his own expense in order to keep things cheerful.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I'll laugh at you heartily when to-morrow is past; till then I dare not: my prize is not certain.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

If this fellah comes back for his breakfast and catches us here we won't have so much to laugh at.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

—Will you laugh at such a dream?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I began to laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight of his face.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You will laugh at my warmth—but, upon my word, I talk of nothing but Jane Fairfax.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

There now, YOU are going to laugh at me too.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)