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What is "humour"

Crossword clues for humour

humour
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
humour
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a sense of humourBritish English, a sense of humor American English (= the ability to laugh and enjoy things that are funny)
▪ A good teacher needs a sense of humour.
black humour
gallows humour
good humour
▪ At 80 her eyes still sparkled with good humour.
have a warped sense of humour (=think strange and unpleasant things are funny)
▪ You really have a warped sense of humour .
unfailing good humour
▪ She battled against cancer with unfailing good humour.
wicked sense of humour
▪ Tara hasn’t lost her wicked sense of humour.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
black
▪ There were moments of black humour as well regarding the safety of deaf people in wartime conditions.
▪ Michela Wrong tells her story with the bitter black humour of those who survived the Mobutu years.
▪ An exercise in black humour set in an enclosed and hopeless world, the film ends with him remaining behind bars.
▪ It is one of his most heartfelt works combining all the pungency, political commitment and black humour of his best plays.
▪ That was the true black humour of colleagues I thought were my mates.
▪ Either way, it was an occasion for black humour, or at least sick jokes.
▪ Even the problems have unexpected black humour, such as the last-breath-of-a-dying man problem.
▪ I have got a seriously black sense of humour.
dry
▪ His letters confirm a highly inquisitive mind regarding natural and scientific phenomena and suggest a phlegmatic temperament and a dry humour.
▪ Billican Geary had a dry humour and would often tell his yarns.
▪ There is even a dry humour.
▪ Aubrey had much the same rather dry sense of humour.
▪ The old man, facing his death with such courage and dry humour, deserved respect.
▪ He seemed to gain pleasure from the comradeship of Art teachers; their banter and dry North country humour.
▪ He is quite witty and his dry humour comes across well.
▪ John is sparse of frame and comment but had a very dry humour.
good
▪ Warm-up man Daley Pike works the enthusiastic crowd, carefully testing the good humour of various individuals.
▪ They were in high good humour.
▪ His sister invariably had the power to restore him to good humour.
▪ With her ready compassion and cheerful good humour, she had provided much that was lacking in Celia's circumscribed upbringing.
▪ The party, in good humour, applauded.
▪ Despite the stress, Spens remained in good humour.
▪ The foreman in a fine good humour.
▪ Falconer was quiet and secretive but seemed in very good humour, laughing and talking rather garrulously.
great
▪ He had a great sense of humour and when we first met, I was instantly attracted to him.
▪ He is immensely strong, but also shyly gentle and has great sense of humour.
▪ She gets me food and she's a marvellous person, with a great sense of humour.
▪ To understand life today, you have to have a great sense of humour.
▪ She also has a great sense of humour.
▪ He has a great sense of humour and will keep you all well-amused.
▪ The children were wonderfully responsive, with a great sense of humour and they derived enormous excitement from the games and competitions.
▪ Squeaking and even gasping with the great good humour of it all.
wry
▪ The deep voice was taunting, but there was a wry humour hidden somewhere beneath the laconic façade.
▪ And he retains the sense of wry humour which he reckons every newspaperman needs, if only to keep him sane.
▪ His brilliance was carried lightly, and he possessed a wry sense of humour.
▪ She relaxed and told Jay about her life, with the wry humour of a survivor.
▪ However, wry humour was not a quality I detected in the lady.
▪ Yet they are saved from sentimentality by the wry humour of both text and pictures.
▪ A good thing they'd be in Winchester tonight ... Wry humour put a slight quirk in his mouth.
▪ He has a wry sense of humour and an uncompromising disposition, particularly when it comes to talking about deeds of valour.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a vein of humour/malice etc
brand of humour/politics/religion etc
▪ Bush was elected on the coat-tails of Ronald Reagan, who in turn worshipped Margaret Thatcher's brand of politics and economics.
▪ I was by no means immune from this brand of humour.
▪ Presenter, Jim Bowen, puts the contestants at ease with his own brand of humour.
mordant wit/satire/humour
▪ He showed his willingness to trade his mordant wit for the required political cliches.
schoolboy humour
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Everyone laughed except Dad, who obviously didn't appreciate the humour of the situation.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But in London it brought belly laughs with a bawdy display of music hall humour and saucy songs.
▪ Do the best you can, hope for the best with the unpredictable and try to keep a sense of humour.
▪ He is immensely strong, but also shyly gentle and has great sense of humour.
▪ His flashes of light-hearted humour were commonly tinged with an awesome critical irony.
▪ In character he was kindly, genial, and modest, with an abundant sense of humour.
▪ The two types of humour perform opposing functions, pull in opposite directions.
▪ There was not a jot of humour in the man.
▪ This is the humour that does not heal, the sort that encourages hatred of outsiders.
II.verb
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Children go through defined periods of oppositional behaviour and may need humouring out of them.
▪ I humoured the old lady, who soon went on her way.
▪ I want the police to look for her, not humour me.
▪ Shana was forced to resort to humouring me rather than getting into arguments with me.
▪ She wasn't even going to humour Mrs Fanshawe any more.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
humour

Humor \Hu"mor\, n. [OE. humour, OF. humor, umor, F. humeur, L. humor, umor, moisture, fluid, fr. humere, umere, to be moist. See Humid.] [Written also humour.]

  1. Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc.

    Note: The ancient physicians believed that there were four humors (the blood, phlegm, yellow bile or choler, and black bile or melancholy), on the relative proportion of which the temperament and health depended.

  2. (Med.) A vitiated or morbid animal fluid, such as often causes an eruption on the skin. ``A body full of humors.''
    --Sir W. Temple.

  3. State of mind, whether habitual or temporary (as formerly supposed to depend on the character or combination of the fluids of the body); disposition; temper; mood; as, good humor; ill humor.

    Examine how your humor is inclined, And which the ruling passion of your mind.
    --Roscommon.

    A prince of a pleasant humor.
    --Bacon.

    I like not the humor of lying.
    --Shak.

  4. pl. Changing and uncertain states of mind; caprices; freaks; vagaries; whims.

    Is my friend all perfection, all virtue and discretion? Has he not humors to be endured?
    --South.

  5. That quality of the imagination which gives to ideas an incongruous or fantastic turn, and tends to excite laughter or mirth by ludicrous images or representations; a playful fancy; facetiousness.

    For thy sake I admit That a Scot may have humor, I'd almost said wit.
    --Goldsmith.

    A great deal of excellent humor was expended on the perplexities of mine host.
    --W. Irving.

    Aqueous humor, Crystalline humor or Crystalline lens, Vitreous humor. (Anat.) See Eye.

    Out of humor, dissatisfied; displeased; in an unpleasant frame of mind.

    Syn: Wit; satire; pleasantry; temper; disposition; mood; frame; whim; fancy; caprice. See Wit.

humour

humour \humour\ n. same as humor. [Chiefly Brit.]

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
humour

chiefly British English spelling of humor; see -or. Related: Humourous; humourist.

Wiktionary
humour

n. 1 (label en obsolete) moist vapour, moisture. 2 (label en archaic or historical) Any of the fluids in an animal body, especially the four "cardinal humours" of blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm that were believed to control the health and mood of the human body. 3 (label en medicine) Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour. 4 (label en uncountable) A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim. vb. (context transitive English) To pacify by indulge.

Related phrases:
WordNet
humour

v. put into a good mood [syn: humor]

humour

  1. n. a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling; "whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time"; "he was in a bad humor" [syn: temper, mood, humor]

  2. a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter [syn: wit, humor, witticism, wittiness]

  3. (Middle Ages) one of the four fluids in the body whose balance was believed to determine your emotional and physical state; "the humors are blood and phlegm and yellow and black bile" [syn: humor]

  4. the liquid parts of the body [syn: liquid body substance, bodily fluid, body fluid, humor]

  5. the quality of being funny; "I fail to see the humor in it" [syn: humor]

  6. the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous; "she didn't appreciate my humor"; "you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor" [syn: humor, sense of humor, sense of humour]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Humour

Humour (or humor in American English) is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours ( Latin: humor, "body fluid"), controlled human health and emotion.

People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. Most people are able to experience humour—be amused, smile or laugh at something funny—and thus are considered to have a sense of humour. The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humour would likely find the behaviour inducing it to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by personal taste, the extent to which a person finds something humorous depends on a host of variables, including geographical location, culture, maturity, level of education, intelligence and context. For example, young children may favour slapstick such as Punch and Judy puppet shows or cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, whose physical nature makes it accessible to them. By contrast, more sophisticated forms of humour such as satire require an understanding of its social meaning and context, and thus tend to appeal to the mature audience.

Humour (disambiguation)

Humour is what may amuse.

Humor or Humour also may refer to:

  • Humors, the blood, phlegm, and biles in old theory of humorism
  • Mănăstirea Humorului, a commune in Suceava County, Romania, sometimes known as Humor
    • Humor Monastery
  • Humor: International Journal of Humor Research
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "humour".

He planned an album of Texspeak: homilies, humour and bar talk in a Texas accent.

If regardant, then maintain your station, brisk and irpe, show the supple motion of your pliant body, but in chief of your knee, and hand, which cannot but arride her proud humour exceedingly.

I was looking at her to see if I could find any justification for her ill humour on her features, but as soon as she saw me she turned away in a very marked manner, and began to speak about nothing to the priest.

The German oculist began by admitting that after the operation for cataract there was no chance of the disease returning, but that there was a considerable risk of the crystalline humour evaporating, and the patient being left in a state of total blindness.

Thereat laughed they all right jocundly only young Stephen and sir Leopold which never durst laugh too open by reason of a strange humour which he would not bewray and also for that he rued for her that bare whoso she might be or wheresoever.

Mr Gardner, minister of Birse, in Aberdeenshire, known for his humour and musical talents, was one evening playing over on his Cremona the notes of an air he had previously jotted down, when a curious scene arrested his attention in the courtyard of the manse.

Captain Bowen spoke in tones of grave concern and Batesman smiled: every member of the crew, down even to the pantry-boy, knew that Chief Patterson was totally devoid of any sense of humour.

Touchstones and Audreys, some genial earnest buffo humour here and there.

Now the reason why Addison and cultivated men in general do not laugh at buffooneries and place them in the catalogue of false humour, is simply because they do not present to their minds any complication.

Ritsem Caid spoke over the servant with broad good humour but Kheda saw the calculation in his eyes.

After breakfast was over I told him in a serious voice that if he would give me a free hand I could cure him, as he was not suffering from sciatica but from a moist and windy humour which I could disperse my means of the Talisman of Solomon and five mystic words.

He had him cited before the Faculty of Medicine to be examined on his knowledge of the eye, and procured the insertion of a satiric article in the news on the new operation for replacing the crystalline humour, alluding to the wonderful artist then in Warsaw who could perform this operation as easily as a dentist could put in a false tooth.

I told them that I should come in the evening to take them to the Aliberti, and felt in a better humour after my visit, for I could see that there was no art or coquetry in what Armelline said.

He was a smallish man, not much taller than themselves, with a strong-featured face creased by humour at the eyes and mouth, though with no sign of a smile now.

My good humour did not prevent my companion having some bad quarters of an hour.