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Ridicule
Definitions
- 1 ridiculous obsolete
"late 17th century, John Aubrey, Brief Lives This action […] became so ridicule."
- 1 Derision; mocking or humiliating words or behavior. countable, uncountable
"Safe from the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne, / Yet touch'd and sham'd by Ridicule alone."
- 2 A small woman's handbag; a reticule. historical, regional
"[…] while paying her own compliments to Mrs. Bates, and appearing to attend to the good old lady’s replies, she saw her with a sort of anxious parade of mystery fold up a letter which she had apparently been reading aloud to Miss Fairfax, and return it into the purple and gold ridicule by her side, […]"
- 3 the act of deriding or treating with contempt wordnet
- 4 An object of sport or laughter; a laughing stock. countable, uncountable
"[Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries."
- 5 language or behavior intended to mock or humiliate wordnet
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- 6 The quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness. countable, uncountable
"to see the ridicule of this monstrous practice"
- 1 To criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of. transitive
"His older sibling constantly ridiculed him with sarcastic remarks."
- 2 subject to laughter or ridicule wordnet
Etymology
The obsolete adjective is borrowed from French ridicule, from Latin rīdiculus (“laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous”), from ridere (“to laugh”). The noun is either from French, noun use of adjective, or from Latin rīdiculum, noun use of neuter of rīdiculus. The verb is from the noun or else from French ridiculer, from ridicule.
The obsolete adjective is borrowed from French ridicule, from Latin rīdiculus (“laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous”), from ridere (“to laugh”). The noun is either from French, noun use of adjective, or from Latin rīdiculum, noun use of neuter of rīdiculus. The verb is from the noun or else from French ridiculer, from ridicule.
The obsolete adjective is borrowed from French ridicule, from Latin rīdiculus (“laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous”), from ridere (“to laugh”). The noun is either from French, noun use of adjective, or from Latin rīdiculum, noun use of neuter of rīdiculus. The verb is from the noun or else from French ridiculer, from ridicule.
Apparently from French ridicule (“reticule”), probably a punning alteration of réticule after ridicule (“ridicule”).
See also for "ridicule"
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Unscramble this word: ridicule