TITTER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does titter mean? 

• TITTER (noun)
  The noun TITTER has 1 sense:

1. a nervous restrained laugh

  Familiarity information: TITTER used as a noun is very rare.

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

1. laugh nervously

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• TITTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A nervous restrained laugh

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

laugh; laughter (the sound of laughing)

Derivation:

titter (laugh nervously)

• TITTER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they titter    ... he / she / it titters   
Past simple: tittered   
Past participle: tittered   
-ing form: tittering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Laugh nervously

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

giggle; titter

Context example:

The girls giggled when the rock star came into the classroom

Hypernyms (to "titter" is one way to...):

express joy; express mirth; laugh (produce laughter)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

titter (a nervous restrained laugh)

titterer (a person who laughs nervously)

 Context examples 

“The rogue got between me and the nearest French victual wain,” muttered Sir Oliver, amid a fresh titter from those who were near enough to catch his words.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Amy and Louisa Eshton tittered under their breath, and looked a little frightened.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was glee in our eyes, and suppressed titters in our mouths, as we put on our shoes and clambered over the side into the boat.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

There was a titter, and some applause; but Mr. Mell was so white, that silence immediately succeeded; and one boy, who had darted out behind him to imitate his mother again, changed his mind, and pretended to want a pen mended.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Having thus, amid a general titter, played very prettily with his interrupter, the lecturer went back to his picture of the past, the drying of the seas, the emergence of the sand-bank, the sluggish, viscous life which lay upon their margins, the overcrowded lagoons, the tendency of the sea creatures to take refuge upon the mud-flats, the abundance of food awaiting them, their consequent enormous growth.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She says, sir, that she'll have no gentlemen; they need not trouble themselves to come near her; nor, he added, with difficulty suppressing a titter, any ladies either, except the young, and single.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Here the gentlemen interposed with earnest petitions to be further enlightened on these two last-named points; but they got only blushes, ejaculations, tremors, and titters, in return for their importunity.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Eliza and Georgiana, evidently acting according to orders, spoke to me as little as possible: John thrust his tongue in his cheek whenever he saw me, and once attempted chastisement; but as I instantly turned against him, roused by the same sentiment of deep ire and desperate revolt which had stirred my corruption before, he thought it better to desist, and ran from me tittering execrations, and vowing I had burst his nose.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)