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laughter |
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_.
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