RIDICULE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Ridicule

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/rˈɪdəkjˌul/ Listen

noun

Ridicule n.

1.

An object of sport or laughter; a laughingstock; a laughing matter. "(Marlborough) was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries." "To the people... but a trifle, to the king but a ridicule."

2.

Remarks concerning a subject or a person designed to excite laughter with a degree of contempt; wit of that species which provokes contemptuous laughter; disparagement by making a person an object of laughter; banter; a term lighter than derision. "We have in great measure restricted the meaning of ridicule, which would properly extend over whole region of the ridiculous, the laughable, and we have narrowed it so that in common usage it mostly corresponds to "derision", which does indeed involve personal and offensive feelings." "Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone."

3.

Quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness. (Obs.) "To see the ridicule of this practice."

Synonyms: Derision; banter; raillery; burlesque; mockery; irony; satire; sarcasm; gibe; jeer; sneer; ribbing. Ridicule, Derision, mockery, ribbing: All four words imply disapprobation; but ridicule and mockery may signify either good-natured opposition without manifest malice, or more maliciously, an attempt to humiliate. Derision is commonly bitter and scornful, and sometimes malignant. ribbing is almost always good-natured and fun-loving.

verb

Ridicule v. t. (past & past part. ridiculed;pres. part. ridiculing) To laugh at mockingly or disparagingly; to awaken ridicule toward or respecting. "I 've known the young, who ridiculed his rage."

Synonyms: To deride; banter; rally; burlesque; mock; satirize; lampoon. See Deride.

adjective

Ridicule adj. Ridiculous. (Obs.) "This action... became so ridicule."

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Etymology of 'Ridicule'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ridicule" Quotes from Famous Books

... witnessed, you have to confess. But some of you carry your Christianity in secret, and button your coats over the cockade that should tell whose soldiers you are, and are ashamed, or too shy, or too nervous, or too afraid of ridicule, or not sufficiently sure of your own grip of the Master, to confess Him before men. I beseech you remember that a Christian man is no Christian unless 'with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,' as well as 'with the heart' ...

— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... for a week or ten days. Count Zerbst said sulkily that it was not the children who would baffle him, but the caves and the woods they were using. At last they began to discuss the measure of summoning to their aid the local police; and for some time debated whether it was worth the risk of the ridicule ...

— The Terrible Twins • Edgar Jepson

... this?" Stepan Arkadyevitch said when, after hearing from his friend that he was being turned out of the house, he found Levin in the garden, where he was walking about waiting for his guest's departure. "Mais c'est ridicule! What fly has stung you? Mais c'est du dernier ridicule! What did you ...

— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy

... didn't fear the exposure, for he knew what a smart lot of detectives he had. But he knew, according to my analysis of the workings of his superheated brain, that the few times he had been real mad in his life and had trusted to his impulses, he had gone deep into the mire of expense or ridicule. Some of the skeletons of these experiences were beginning to rattle in opposition to the oft-repeated easy solution of Smith, who had been stoking that inflamed head since 2 P. M. with the kind of gore which kept it ablaze. Tescheron was certainly ...

— Cupid's Middleman • Edward B. Lent

... and slandered us at first, are beginning to give impartial accounts of our meetings. Newspapers do not lead, but follow public opinion; and doing so, they go through three stages in regard to reforms; they first ridicule them, then report them without comment, and at last openly advocate them. We seem to be still in the first stage ...

— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

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