Noun

Singular laughter

Plural usually uncountable; plural laughters

laughter (usually uncountable; plural laughters)

1. The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound.

   Their loud laughter betrayed their presence

2. A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the laughing face, particularly of the lips, with a peculiar expression of the eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction or derision, and usually attended by a sonorous and interrupted expulsion of air from the lungs.

   • The act of laughter, which is a sweet contraction of the muscles of the face, and a pleasant agitation of the vocal organs, is not merely, or totally within the jurisdiction of ourselves. - Sir Thomas Browne
   • Archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes overrunning with laughter - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

3. (archaic) A reason for merriment
4. (Can we verify this sense?) (slang) A decidedly one-sided sports contest, especially where the winning team is able to score at will.

   The final score of the football game was 70-0; what a laughter it was.

Related terms

• laugh

Laughter is an audible expression or the appearance of happiness, or an inward feeling of joy (laughing on the inside). It may ensue (as a physiological reaction) from jokes, tickling or other stimuli. It is in most cases a very pleasant sensation.

Laughter is found among various animals, as well as in humans. Among the human species, it is a part of human behaviour regulated by the brain, helping humans clarify their intentions in social interaction and providing an emotional context to conversations. Laughter is used as a signal for being part of a group — it signals acceptance and positive interactions with others. Laughter is sometimes seemingly contagious, and the laughter of one person can itself provoke laughter from others as a positive feedback. This may account in part for the popularity of laugh tracks in situation comedy television shows.

Scientifically speaking, laughter is caused by the epiglottis constricting the larynx. The study of humor and laughter, and its psychological and physiological effects on the human body is called gelotology.

Quotes on laughter, which can be an audible expression of merriment and amusement or an inward feeling of joy and pleasure.

Contents

• 1 Sourced
• 2 Unsourced
  • 2.1 Unknown author
• 3 External links

Sourced

• You grow up the first day you have your first good laugh — at yourself.
  • Ethel Barrymore, as quoted in 1,600 Quotes & Pieces of Wisdom That Just Might Help You Out When You're Stuck in a Moment (and Can't Get Out of It!) (2003) by Gary P. Guthrie

• Mirth is God's medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it.
  • Henry Ward Beecher, in Royal Truths (1869), p. 248

• Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
  • Edmund Burke in the Preface to Brissot's Address to his Constituents (1794)

• And if I laugh at any mortal thing, 'Tis that I may not weep.
  • Lord Byron, Don Juan, Cto. IV, st. 4 (1821)

• No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.
  • Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, Bk. I, ch. 4 (1833–1834)

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Wed Dec 16 17:25:51 2009