3 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Laughter \Laugh"ter\, n. [AS. hleahtor akin to OHG. hlahtar G.
gel["a]chter, Icel. hl[=a]tr, Dan. latter. See {Laugh}, v. i.
]
A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the 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. See {Laugh}, v. i.
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 T.
Browne.
Archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes overrunning
with laughter. --Longfellow.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
laughter
n 1: the sound of laughing [syn: {laugh}]
2: the act of laughing; the manifestation of joy or mirth of
scorn; "he enjoyed the laughter of the crowd"
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
LAUGHTER, n. An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the
features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious
and though intermittent, incurable. Liability to attacks of laughter
is one of the characteristics distinguishing man from the animals --
these being not only inaccessible to the provocation of his example,
but impregnable to the microbes having original jurisdiction in
bestowal of the disease. Whether laughter could be imparted to
animals by inoculation from the human patient is a question that has
not been answered by experimentation. Dr Meir Witchell holds that
the infection character of laughter is due to the instantaneous
fermentation of _sputa_ diffused in a spray. From this peculiarity he
names the disorder _Convulsio spargens_.
more about laughter
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