LAUGHABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does laughable mean? 

• LAUGHABLE (adjective)
  The adjective LAUGHABLE has 2 senses:

1. so unreasonable as to invite derision

2. arousing or provoking laughter

  Familiarity information: LAUGHABLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LAUGHABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

So unreasonable as to invite derision

Synonyms:

absurd; cockeyed; derisory; idiotic; laughable; ludicrous; nonsensical; preposterous; ridiculous

Context example:

her conceited assumption of universal interest in her rather dull children was ridiculous

Similar:

foolish (devoid of good sense or judgment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Arousing or provoking laughter

Synonyms:

amusing; comic; comical; funny; laughable; mirthful; risible

Context example:

risible courtroom antics

Similar:

humorous; humourous (full of or characterized by humor)

Derivation:

laugh (produce laughter)

 Context examples 

On the other hand, the whole thing was laughable and childish.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

“Well,” he added after he had dosed them round and they had taken his prescriptions, with really laughable humility, more like charity schoolchildren than blood-guilty mutineers and pirates—“well, that's done for today.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

This person (who had thus, from the first moment of his entrance, struck in me what I can only describe as a disgustful curiosity) was dressed in a fashion that would have made an ordinary person laughable; his clothes, that is to say, although they were of rich and sober fabric, were enormously too large for him in every measurement—the trousers hanging on his legs and rolled up to keep them from the ground, the waist of the coat below his haunches, and the collar sprawling wide upon his shoulders.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

All my old-time marvel at life returned to me at sight of this splendid incarnation of it, and Wolf Larsen’s cold explanation of life and its meaning was truly ridiculous and laughable.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Thomas Mugridge, on the other hand, considered it a laughable affair, and was continually bobbing his head out the galley door to make jocose remarks.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I have seen him a score of times, at table, insulting this hunter or that, with cool and level eyes and, withal, a certain air of interest, pondering their actions or replies or petty rages with a curiosity almost laughable to me who stood onlooker and who understood.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)