laughable
adjUK /ˈlɑːfəbl̩/ · US /ˈlæfəbl̩/
Etymology From laugh + -able.
1
Archaic Fitted to excite laughter; humorous.
- At this our first dinner at the Government House a very laughable incident occurred.1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 91
2
Worthless; worthy of contempt or derision.
- It would be difficult, for example, to imagine a bigger, more obvious subject for comedy than the laughable self-delusion of washed-up celebrities, especially if the washed-up celebrity in question is Adam West, a camp icon who can go toe to toe with William Shatner as the king of winking self-parody.2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- “Maybe it made them feel better about their lives that a young prince’s life was laughable. Never mind that my mother didn’t meet Major Hewitt until long after I was born,” he wrote.2023 January 6, “Prince Harry book Spare: King Charles made ‘sadistic’ joke about Prince Harry’s ‘real’ dad”, in NZ Herald:
- Derived terms
- laughableness, laughably, unlaughable
- Related terms
- jocular