ridicule

Noun · Verb

Synonyms: derision roast guy blackguard laugh at jest at rib make fun poke fun

WordNet 3.0

Noun (2)

language or behavior intended to mock or humiliate
the act of deriding or treating with contemptSynonyms: derision

Verb (1)

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”Synonyms: roast guy blackguard laugh at jest at rib make fun poke fun

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

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. [1913 Webster]

[Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries.— Buckle.[1913 Webster]

To the people . . . but a trifle, to the king but a ridicule.— Foxe.[1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

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.[1913 Webster]

Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone.— Pope.[1913 Webster]

3.Quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

To see the ridicule of this practice.— Addison.[1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

I 've known the young, who ridiculed his rage. --Goldsmith. [1913 Webster]

Syn: To deride; banter; rally; burlesque; mock; satirize; lampoon. See Deride. [1913 Webster]

Ridicule \Rid"i*cule\, a. [F.] Ridiculous. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

This action . . . became so ridicule. --Aubrey. [1913 Webster]

The Devil's Dictionary

RIDICULE, n. Words designed to show that the person of whom they are uttered is devoid of the dignity of character distinguishing him who utters them. It may be graphic, mimetic or merely rident. Shaftesbury is quoted as having pronounced it the test of truth -- a ridiculous assertion, for many a solemn fallacy has undergone centuries of ridicule with no abatement of its popular acceptance. What, for example, has been more valorously derided than the doctrine of Infant Respectability?