Crossword clues for ridicule
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ridicule \Rid"i*cule\, n. [F. ridicule, L. ridiculum a jest, fr. ridiculus. See Ridiculous.]
-
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.
--Buckle.To the people . . . but a trifle, to the king but a ridicule.
--Foxe. -
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.
--Hare.Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone.
--Pope. -
Quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness. [Obs.]
To see the ridicule of this practice.
--Addison.Syn: Derision; banter; raillery; burlesque; mockery; irony; satire; sarcasm; gibe; jeer; sneer; ribbing.
Usage: 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.
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.
--Goldsmith.
Syn: To deride; banter; rally; burlesque; mock; satirize; lampoon. See Deride.
Ridicule \Rid"i*cule\, a. [F.] Ridiculous. [Obs.]
This action . . . became so ridicule.
--Aubrey.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1680s, "make ridiculous," from ridicule (n.) or else from French ridiculer, from ridicule. Meaning "make fun of" is from c.1700. Related: Ridiculed; ridiculing.
1670s, "absurd thing;" 1680s, "words or actions meant to invoke ridicule," from French ridicule, noun use of adjective (15c.), or from Latin ridiculum "laughing matter, joke," from noun use of neuter of ridiculus (see ridiculous).\n\n"He who brings ridicule to bear against truth, finds in his hand a blade without a hilt."
[Walter Savage Landor, "Imaginary Conversations"]
Wiktionary
(context obsolete English) ridiculous n. 1 derision; mocking or humiliating words or behaviour 2 An object of sport or laughter; a laughing stock. 3 The quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness. v
(context transitive English) to criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of
WordNet
n. language or behavior intended to mock or humiliate
the act of deriding or treating with contempt [syn: derision]
Wikipedia
Ridicule is a 1996 French film set in the 18th century at the decadent court of Versailles, where social status can rise and fall based on one's ability to mete out witty insults and avoid ridicule oneself. The story examines the social injustices of late 18th century France, in showing the corruption and callousness of the aristocrats.
Usage examples of "ridicule".
The government resisted this, and Lord John Eussell, with a tone of ridicule and acrimony, offered the motion an ostentatious opposition.
The Admiral, who had previously amused himself by giving an alarming description of this ceremony, now very courteously exempted his guests from the inconvenience and ridicule attending it.
Ward, and had come to an agreement with him on several points which both felt the alienists would ridicule.
Behind the flippant words Ardagh was making the point that war was a bitter business and, more politely than Fisher, was ridiculing the notion that it could be civilized.
He had a deep interest in physics, biology and genetics, ridiculed the idea that man had a special place in the cosmos, did not believe in life after death, individual destiny, or that the mind can exist independently of the body, preferring logical explanations for phenomena, based on experience.
We may be well assured that a writer, conversant with the world, would never have ventured to expose the gods of his country to public ridicule, had they not already been the objects of secret contempt among the polished and enlightened orders of society.
The marquis, who was no lover of dissimulation, began to laugh, and the countess, fearing he would cover her with ridicule, hastened to change the conversation.
Pete and I landed and reported the human footprints among the tapir and others, we were the objects of boisterous ridicule.
But since that period he has behaved towards me with the utmost ingratitude --entered into all the silly cabala against me, blamed all my measures, and turned into ridicule the Legion of Honour.
He then shewed me a satire which I could not understand, but which was meant to turn the whole Court into ridicule.
This explains why, for the most part, the deist pamphlets of the time were written either in satirical vein or in an aggressive tone of ridicule.
The first thing to do was to teach me writing, and I was placed amongst children of five and six years, who did not fail to turn me into ridicule on account of my age.
A great talker, with a memory crammed with maxims and precepts often without sense, but of which she loved to make a show, very devout, and so jealous of her husband that she did not conceal her vexation when he expressed his satisfaction at being seated at table opposite her sister, she laid herself open to much ridicule.
When it does we must make sure that no wet breast is available for the government to examine and that we in authority ridicule it as wishful thinking.
Notwithstanding the rapid increase of Christians under the reign of the Flavian family, Rome, Alexandria, and the other great cities of the empire, still contained a strong and powerful faction of Infidels, who envied the prosperity, and who ridiculed, even in their theatres, the theological disputes of the church.