Wiktionary

ridicule

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from French ridicule, from Latin ridiculus (“laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous”), from ridere (“to laugh”).

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ˈɹɪdɪkjuːl/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Hyphenation: rid‧i‧cule

VerbEdit

ridicule (third-person singular simple present ridicules, present participle ridiculing, simple past and past participle ridiculed)

  1. (transitive) to criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of
    His older sibling constantly ridiculed him with sarcastic remarks.

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NounEdit

ridicule (countable and uncountable, plural ridicules)

  1. derision; mocking or humiliating words or behaviour
    • (Can we date this quote by Alexander Pope and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
      Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, / Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone.
  2. An object of sport or laughter; a laughing stock.
    • (Can we date this quote by Buckle and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
      [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries.
    • (Can we date this quote by Foxe and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
      To the people […] but a trifle, to the king but a ridicule.
  3. The quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.
    • (Can we date this quote by Addison and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
      to see the ridicule of this practice

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Related termsEdit

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AdjectiveEdit

ridicule (comparative more ridicule, superlative most ridicule)

  1. (obsolete) ridiculous
    This action […] became so ridicule. — Aubrey.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for ridicule in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Further readingEdit

FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from Latin ridiculus.

PronunciationEdit

AdjectiveEdit

ridicule (plural ridicules)

  1. ridiculous (all meanings)

Further readingEdit

LatinEdit

EtymologyEdit

From rīdiculus (“laughable; ridiculous”), from rīdeō (“to laugh; mock”).

AdverbEdit

rīdiculē (comparative rīdiculius, superlative rīdiculissimē)

  1. laughably, amusingly
  2. absurdly, ridiculously

SynonymsEdit

ReferencesEdit

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