RIDICULE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ridicule mean? 

• RIDICULE (noun)
  The noun RIDICULE has 2 senses:

1. language or behavior intended to mock or humiliate

2. the act of deriding or treating with contempt

  Familiarity information: RIDICULE used as a noun is rare.

• RIDICULE (verb)
  The verb RIDICULE has 1 sense:

1. subject to laughter or ridicule

  Familiarity information: RIDICULE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RIDICULE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Language or behavior intended to mock or humiliate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("ridicule" is a kind of...):

discourtesy; disrespect (an expression of lack of respect)

Derivation:

ridicule (subject to laughter or ridicule)

ridiculous (broadly or extravagantly humorous; resembling farce)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of deriding or treating with contempt

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

derision; ridicule

Hypernyms ("ridicule" is a kind of...):

discourtesy; offence; offense; offensive activity (a lack of politeness; a failure to show regard for others; wounding the feelings or others)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ridicule"):

mock (the act of mocking or ridiculing)

Derivation:

ridicule (subject to laughter or ridicule)

ridiculous (inspiring scornful pity)

• RIDICULE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ridicule    ... he / she / it ridicules   
Past simple: ridiculed   
Past participle: ridiculed   
-ing form: ridiculing   

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 "ridicule" is one way to...):

bemock; mock (treat with contempt)

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

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

Derivation:

ridicule (the act of deriding or treating with contempt)

ridicule (language or behavior intended to mock or humiliate)

ridiculer (a humorist who uses ridicule and irony and sarcasm)

 Context examples 

I hope I never ridicule what is wise and good.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

And then he was still more ridiculed.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Neither shall I disown, that in speaking I am apt to fall into the voice and manner of the Houyhnhnms, and hear myself ridiculed on that account, without the least mortification.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

But, fair or not fair, there are unbecoming conjunctions, which reason will patronize in vain—which taste cannot tolerate—which ridicule will seize.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

They had talked, and they had been silent; he had reasoned, she had ridiculed; and they had parted at last with mutual vexation.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Such conduct made them of course most exceedingly laughed at; but ridicule could not shame, and seemed hardly to provoke them.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

A demand so sudden and so serious made the young man hesitate a moment, for ridicule is often harder to bear than self-denial.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

From the beginning he has never concealed his belief that Professor Challenger is an absolute fraud, that we are all embarked upon an absurd wild-goose chase and that we are likely to reap nothing but disappointment and danger in South America, and corresponding ridicule in England.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Were we among the tamer scenes of nature I might fear to encounter your unbelief, perhaps your ridicule; but many things will appear possible in these wild and mysterious regions which would provoke the laughter of those unacquainted with the ever-varied powers of nature; nor can I doubt but that my tale conveys in its series internal evidence of the truth of the events of which it is composed.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

She had never rejoiced at the sound before, nor ever before entered the passage, nor walked up the stairs, with any wish of giving pleasure, but in conferring obligation, or of deriving it, except in subsequent ridicule.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)