Chortle
/ˈt͡ʃɔɹtəl/ noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A joyful, somewhat muffled laugh, rather like a snorting chuckle.
"He frequently interrupted himself with chortles while he told us his favorite joke."
- 2 a soft partly suppressed laugh wordnet
- 3 A similar sounding vocalisation of various birds.
Verb
- 1 To laugh with a chortle or chortles. intransitive
"The old fellow chortled as he recalled his youthful adventures."
- 2 laugh quietly or with restraint wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples""Chortle" was a nonce word when it was first created, but now it's a regular English word."
Etymology
Perhaps a blend of chuckle + snort. Coined by Lewis Carroll in his poem Jabberwocky, completed in 1855 but only introduced to the public in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass.