ridicule

[rid·i·cule]

When you ridicule someone, you mock or make fun of them. They become the object of your ridicule or mockery. Your bad behavior might bring ridicule on your parents, who raised you to know better.

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An object of sport or laughter; a laughingstock; a laughing matter.

Noun
the act of deriding or treating with contempt

Noun
language or behavior intended to mock or humiliate

Verb
subject to laughter or ridicule; "The satirists ridiculed the plans for a new opera house"; "The students poked fun at the inexperienced teacher"; "His former students roasted the professor at his 60th birthday"


n.
An object of sport or laughter; a laughingstock; a laughing matter.

n.
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.

n.
Quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.

v. t.
To laugh at mockingly or disparagingly; to awaken ridicule toward or respecting.

a.
Ridiculous.


Ridicule

Rid"i*cule , n. [F. ridicule, L. ridiculum a jest, fr. ridiculus. See Ridiculous.] 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.
Syn. -- Derision; banter; raillery; burlesque; mockery; irony; satire; sarcasm; gibe; jeer; sneer. -- Ridicule, Derision, Both words imply disapprobation; but ridicule usually signifies good-natured, fun-loving opposition without manifest malice, while derision is commonly bitter and scornful, and sometimes malignant.

Ridicule

Rid"i*cule, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ridiculed ;p. pr. & vb. n. Ridiculing.] To laugh at mockingly or disparagingly; to awaken ridicule toward or respecting.
I 've known the young, who ridiculed his rage.
Syn. -- To deride; banter; rally; burlesque; mock; satirize; lampoon. See Deride.

Ridicule

Rid"i*cule , a. [F.] Ridiculous. [Obs.]
This action . . . became so ridicule.

An object of sport or laughter; a laughingstock; a laughing matter.

To laugh at mockingly or disparagingly; to awaken ridicule toward or respecting.

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Usage Examples

I avoid talking before the youth of the age as I would dancing before them: for if one's tongue don't move in the steps of the day, and thinks to please by its old graces, it is only an object of ridicule.

I couldn't walk down any street in Britain without being laughed at. It was a nightmare. My children were devastated because their dad was a figure of ridicule.

From my experience, politicians are much more uncomfortable being made fun of than they are being preached at and screeched at - you know, and the soapbox routine. They're much more uneasy knowing they're a target of ridicule.

The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false.

Mysticism and exaggeration go together. A mystic must not fear ridicule if he is to push all the way to the limits of humility or the limits of delight.

So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce.

Misspelled Form

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Other Usage Examples

Of the various forms of government which have prevailed in the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule.

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.

I'm appalled the word feminism has been denigrated to a place of almost ridicule and I very passionately believe the word needs to be revalued and reintroduced with power and understanding that this is a global picture.

I'm a geophysicist and all my earth science books when I was a student, I had to give the wrong answer to get an A. We used to ridicule continental drift. It was something we laughed at. We learned of Marshall Kay's geosynclinal cycle, which is a bunch of crap.

In junior high school, I was an object of pure ridicule for my dress, withdrawal, and asocial manner. Dozens of times, I saw individuals laugh and smile more in ten to fifteen minutes than I did in all my life up to then.

Society is a republic. When an individual tries to lift themselves above others, they are dragged down by the mass, either by ridicule or slander.

Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.

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