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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
laughable
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
almost
▪ The issues on which the schism turned have often seemed to Western scholars so insignificant as to be almost laughable.
▪ In some cases, the level of apparent disorganisation has become almost laughable.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ It would be laughable if it wasn't so serious.
▪ The government's attempt to privatize the prison service has been simply laughable.
▪ The price of the house was almost laughable.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Laughable

Laughable \Laugh"a*ble\, a. Fitted to excite laughter; as, a laughable story; a laughable scene.

Syn: Droll; ludicrous; mirthful; comical. See Droll, and Ludicrous. [1913 Webster] -- Laugh"a*ble*ness, n. -- Laugh"a*bly, adv.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
laughable

1590s, from laugh (v.) + -able. Related: Laughably.

Wiktionary
laughable

a. 1 worthless; worthy of contempt or derision. 2 Fitted to excite laughter; humorous.

WordNet
laughable
  1. adj. completely devoid of wisdom or good sense; "the absurd excuse that the dog ate his homework"; "that's a cockeyed idea"; "ask a nonsensical question and get a nonsensical answer"; "a contribution so small as to be laughable"; "it is ludicrous to call a cottage a mansion"; "a preposterous attempt to turn back the pages of history"; "her conceited assumption of universal interest in her rather dull children was ridiculous" [syn: absurd, cockeyed, derisory, idiotic, ludicrous, nonsensical, preposterous, ridiculous]

  2. arousing or provoking laughter; "an amusing film with a steady stream of pranks and pratfalls"; "an amusing fellow"; "a comic hat"; "a comical look of surprise"; "funny stories that made everybody laugh"; "a very funny writer"; "it would have been laughable if it hadn't hurt so much"; "a mirthful experience"; "risible courtroom antics" [syn: amusing, comic, comical, funny, mirthful, risible]

Usage examples of "laughable".

He was an amusing rogue, knowing by heart a quantity of erotic songs and of smutty stories which he could tell in the most laughable manner.

This nostrum, and the manner of administering it, struck me in so laughable a light that I could not keep my countenance.

My guess is that at the very beginning of his teaching career he realized that he would have to compensate in some very definite, dramatic way for the physical inadequacies of his person -- his extreme nearsightedness, his dwarfism making him laughable, vulnerable.

Rossman went through the forms of Edwardian courtesy with a punctilio that would have been laughable if it were not so obviously a desperate effort to cling to something real and known.

I was some kind of nympho with a costume fetish, that my job was laughable, that Isobel and I were Thickie and Thickier, barely able to keep up with their not-so-clever quips and implications.

But if the postmistress insisted on rescuing her brother, which was laughable when he thought about it, death would come as a blessing.

The following laughable production was sold by poor Herbert Stockhore during the last Montem: we hardly think we need apologise for introducing this specimen of his muse: any account of Eton characteristics must have been held deficient without it.

Two frigates against fifteen war junks and fourteen fireboats will seem laughable to Admiral Kuan.

The Saturnalian view that satire allows anti-social behavior and makes the shameful laughable conflicts with the idea that satire, like law, is an agent of social control.

The idea of trailblazing a path back to familiar ground was almost laughable, she knew.

But you will not be offended if I laugh at your excuses, for after what you have said I cannot help thinking them very laughable.

With all my errors I have that merit of utter fidelity--to the world laughable!

Neapolitan dialect is of such a nature that it is impossible to write verses in it that are not laughable.

This nostrum, and the manner of administering it, struck me in so laughable a light that I could not keep my countenance.

Among other things we spoke of Buddy Holly, whose songs we had sung while tearing down the midway on slough night, and in a series of laughable duets we made an a cappella mess of our favorite parts of his tunes.