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ridicule |
5 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Ridicule \Rid"i*cule\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Ridiculed};p. pr & vb n. {Ridiculing}.] To laugh at mockingly or disparagingly; to awaken ridicule toward or respecting. I 've known the young, who ridiculed his rage. --Goldsmith. Syn: To deride; banter; rally; burlesque; mock; satirize; lampoon. See {Deride}. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Ridicule \Rid"i*cule\, a. [F.] Ridiculous. [Obs.] This action . . . became so ridicule. --Aubrey. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Ridicule \Rid"i*cule\, n. [F. ridicule, L. ridiculum a jest, fr ridiculus. See {Ridiculous}.] 1. An object of sport or laughter; a laughingstock; a laughing matter. [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries. --Buckle. To the people . . . but a trifle, to the king but a ridicule. --Foxe. 2. Remarks concerning a subject or a person designed to excite laughter with a degree of contempt; wit of that species which provokes contemptuous laughter; disparagement by making a person an object of laughter; banter; -- a term lighter than derision. We have in great measure restricted the meaning of ridicule, which would properly extend over whole region of the ridiculous, -- the laughable, -- and we have narrowed it so that in common usage it mostly corresponds to ``derision'', which does indeed involve personal and offensive feelings. --Hare. Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone. --Pope. 3. Quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness. [Obs.] To see the ridicule of this practice. --Addison. Syn: Derision; banter; raillery; burlesque; mockery; irony; satire; sarcasm; gibe; jeer; sneer. Usage: {Ridicule}, {Derision}, Both words imply disapprobation; but ridicule usually signifies good-natured, fun-loving opposition without manifest malice, while derision is commonly bitter and scornful, and sometimes malignant. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: ridicule n : exposing someone to laughter [syn: {derision}] v : subject to laughter or ridicule: "The satirists ridiculed the plans for a new opera house"; "The students poked fun at the inexperienced teacher" [syn: {guy}, {blackguard}, {laugh at}, {jest at}, {rib}, {make fun}, {poke fun}] From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]: RIDICULE, n. Words designed to show that the person of whom they are uttered is devoid of the dignity of character distinguishing him who utters them It may be graphic, mimetic or merely rident. Shaftesbury is quoted as having pronounced it the test of truth -- a ridiculous assertion, for many a solemn fallacy has undergone centuries of ridicule with no abatement of its popular acceptance. What for example, has been more valorously derided than the doctrine of Infant Respectability?
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