Forms: 1 hleahtor, hlehter, 1, 3 leahter, 3 lahter, lehter, leihter, 4 laghter, laȝter, laght(t)ir, lauȝtur, lauhter, leiȝter, 5 laghtur, laughtir, (laughtre), 5–6 lauchtír, 6 laughtur, Sc. lau-, lawchter, 4– laughter. [OE. hleahtor str. masc. = OHG. hlahtar (MHG. lahter, whence collective gelehter, mod.G. gelächter), ON. hlátr (MSw. later, Da. latter):—OTeut. *hlahtro-z, f. root *hlah-: see LAUGH v.]
1. The action of laughing; occas. a manner of laughing. Homeric laughter (see Iliad, I. 599; Odyss., XX. 346).
Beowulf, 611 (Gr.). Ðær wæs hæleþa hleahtor.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., xxxiv. 230. Hie habbað swæ micle mede oðerra monna godra weorca,… swæ we habbað ðæs hleahtres, ðonne we hlihhað gliʓmonna unnyttes cræftes.
a. 1050. Liber Scintill., lx. (1889), 171. Þurh leahter stunt wyrcð scylda.
c. 1205. Lay., 3045. Mid gomene & mid lehtre [c. 1275 lihtre].
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 1451. Now es laghter and now es gretyng.
1388. Wyclif, Job viii. 21. Til thi mouth be fillid with leiȝter.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 96. A lowde laȝter he loȝe.
14[?]. How Good Wife taught Dau., 15, in Barbour’s Bruce. Nocht lowd of lauchtir, na of langage crouss.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. cxxv. 3. Then shal oure mouth be fylled with laughter.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 283. When I behold there undiscrete behauours,… I cannot but burst out into laughter.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 80. O I am slab’d with laughter.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. vi. 27. Much Laughter at the defects of others, is a signe of Pusillanimity.
1713. Steele, Guardian, No. 29, ¶ 25. Laughter is a vent of any sudden joy.
1754. Chatham, Lett. Nephew, v. 35. It is rare to see in any one a graceful laughter.
1793. Holcroft, trans. Lavater’s Physiog., xxx. 148. The physiognomy of laughter would be the best of elementary books for the knowledge of man.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. xcvii. Laughter, vainly loud, False to the heart, distorts the hollow cheek.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 174. The … hubbub o’ curses, endin’ in shouts o’ deevilish lauchter.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, xii. In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.
1866. R. Chambers, Ess., Ser. II. 180. Man … has a faculty of the ludicrous in his mental organisation, and muscles in the face … to express the sensation in … laughter.
Personified. 1632. Milton, L’Allegro, 32. Laughter holding both his sides.
transf. 1825. Longf., Spirit Poetry, 16. The silver brook … Slips down through moss-grown stones with endless laughter.
b. An instance of this, a laugh. Now rare.
971. Blickl. Hom., 59. Hwær beoþ þonne … þa unʓemetlican hleahtras.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 149. Forlete lahtres, and idele songes.
c. 1205. Lay., 1219. His lauedi Diana hine leofliche biheolde mid wnsume leahtren.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 156. To underuongen flesliche leihtren.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1217. Þus he bourded aȝayn with mony a blyþe laȝter.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 2673. With lowde laghttirs one lofte for lykynge of byrdez.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 78. Better is the last smyle, than the fyrst laughter.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 57 b. Then with a greate laughter (he saide) they would have it so.
1651. Life Father Sarpi (1676), 10. Whereat the Duke breaking into a laughter, replyed.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, Life Æsop (1708), 8. Whereupon Æsop brake out into a Loud Laughter.
1775. Goldsm., Scarron, II. 22. They broke out into a laughter for four or five several times successively.
1840. Browning, Sordello, III. 98. Exchanging quick low laughters.
† c. In various obsolete phrases.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 212. To bringen o leihtre hore ontfule louerd.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 1120 (1169). She for laughter wende for to dye.
a. 1375. Lay Folks Mass Bk., App. IV. 324. He barst on lauhtre.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 5054. Diamede full depely drough out a laughter.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 5303. Þan has þat hende him by þe hand & hent vp a laȝtir.
a. 1420. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 3400. The Kyng tooke up a laughtir, and went his way.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., cxxviii. (1482), 107. The kynge … a grete laughter toke vp.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scotl., II. VIII. 125. Al war lyk to cleiue of lauchter.
1608. Armin, Nest Ninn. (1842), 32. Shee forgetting modesty, gapte out a laughter.
d. Used for: A subject or matter for laughter.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. ii. 101. It would be argument for a Weeke, Laughter for a Moneth, and a good iest for euer. Ibid. (1601), Jul. C., IV. iii. 114. Hath Cassius liu’d To be but Mirth and Laughter to his Brutus?
1864. Tennyson, Enoch Arden, 184. All his Annie’s fears, Save, as his Annie’s, were a laughter to him. Ibid., Aylmer’s F., 498. A mockery to the yeomen over ale, And laughter to their lords.
¶ 2. An alleged name for a company of ostlers.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, F vj b. A Laughtre of Ostelores.
3. attrib. and Comb., as laughter-book, -burst, -maker; laughter-dimpled, -lighted, -lit, -loving, -stirring, -twinkling adjs.; † laughter-crack vb.
1851. Mad. de Chatelain, trans. (title), A *Laughter Book for Little Folk.
1868. Ld. Houghton, Select. fr. Wks., 208. Each repeated *laughter-burst.
1634. Heywood, Lancash. Witches, II. Wks. 1874, IV. 188. Our sides are charm’d, or else this stuffe Would *laughter-cracke them.
1887. G. Meredith, Ballads & Poems, 113. A *laughter-dimpled countenance.
1813. Scott, Trierm., I. xviii. *Laughter-lighted eyes.
a. 1847. Eliza Cook, Rory O’More, vi. Apollo with *laughter-lit face.
1592. Daniel, Delia, Sonn., x. Thou … *Laughter-louing Goddesse, worldly pleasures Queen.
1807–8. W. Irving, Salmag. (1824), 126. One of those confounded good thoughts struck his laughter-loving brain.
1850. Grote, Greece, II. lxvii. VIII. 456. The professional jester or *laughter-maker at the banquets of rich Athenian citizens.
1877. Dowden, Shaks. Prim., vi. 66. *Laughter-stirring surprises.
1826. Hor. Smith, Tor Hill (1838), II. 215. The … *laughter-twinkling eyes of the Frenchman.
Hence Laughterful, Laughterless adjs.
1825. Blackw. Mag., XVIII. 440. No unfit haunting place For things of laughterless beatitude. Ibid. (1897), Nov., 680/1. The brute … takes himself with the most laughterless gravity.
1873. Sunday Courier (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.), 16 Nov., 1/2.
| But summer hath not any rose | |
| Whose tender tinges rank above | |
| The ripe rich laughterful repose | |
| Of lips I love. |
1898. Sat. Rev., 9 July, 39. A teacher as rich and laughterful, as mendacious and corrupting as life itself.
