ridicule

EtymologyEdit

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

PronunciationEdit

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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.

SynonymsEdit

• outlaugh

TranslationsEdit

NounEdit

ridicule (countable and uncountable, plural ridicules)

1. derision; mocking or humiliating words or behaviour
   • Alexander Pope

     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.
   • Buckle

     [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries.

   • Foxe

     To the people […] but a trifle, to the king but a ridicule.

3. The quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.
   • Addison

     to see the ridicule of this practice

SynonymsEdit

• See also Wikisaurus:ridicule

Related termsEdit

• deride
• derision
• ridiculous
• ridiculosity

TranslationsEdit

See alsoEdit

• humiliation

AdjectiveEdit

ridicule (comparative more ridicule, superlative most ridicule)

1. (obsolete) ridiculous

   This action […] became so ridicule. — Aubrey.

External linksEdit

• ridicule in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• ridicule in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

PronunciationEdit

• Audio

  (file)

AdjectiveEdit

ridicule (masculine and feminine, plural ridicules)

1. ridiculous (all meanings)

EtymologyEdit

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

AdverbEdit

rīdiculē (comparative rīdiculius, superlative rīdiculissimē)

1. laughably, amusingly
2. absurdly, ridiculously

SynonymsEdit

• perrīdiculē