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Guffaw vs Laught - What's the difference?

guffaw | laught |

As verbs the difference between guffaw and laught

is that guffaw is to laugh boisterously while laught is (obsolete) (laugh).

As a noun guffaw

is a boisterous laugh.

guffaw

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A boisterous laugh
  • *
    • On opening the little door, two hairy monsters flew at my throat, bearing me down, and extinguishing the light; while a mingled guffaw from Heathcliff and Hareton put the copestone on my rage and humiliation.
  • * 1906 , , ch. xx,
    • He walked to the edge and they heard his hoarse guffaw of laughter as the arrows clanged and clattered against his impenetrable mail.
  • * 1936 , , ch. 15,
    • He heaved up with a sulfurous curse, braced his legs and glared about him, with a burst of coarse guffaws in his ears and the reek of unwashed bodies in his nostrils.

    Synonyms

    * (boisterous laugh) belly laugh

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To laugh boisterously.
  • * 1891 , , ch. 15,
    • He guffawed at his adversaries.
  • * 1900 , ,
    • Peter, on the contrary, threw back his head and guffawed thunderously.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    laught

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • (obsolete) (laugh)
  • * {{quote-book, year=1638, author=John Wilkins, title=The Discovery of a World in the Moone, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=Other truths have beene formerly accounted as ridiculous as this, I shall specifie that of the Antipodes, which have beene denied and laught at by many wise men and great Schollers, such as were Herodotus'', St. ''Austin'', ''Lactantius'', the ''Venerable Bede'', ''Lucretius'' the Poet, ''Procopius'', and the voluminous ''Abulensis with others. }}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1665-1676, author=Sir John Lauder, title=Publications of the Scottish History Society, Vol. 36, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=They made this poor fellow beleive that he was only condemned to the galleys, at which he laught , telling that it appeared they knew not he was a smith, so that he could easily file his chaines and run away. }}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1679, author=Beaumont and Fletcher, title=The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher in Ten Volumes, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=How Epidemick errors by thy Play Were laught out of esteeme, so purged away. }}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1899, author=William Ralph Inge, title=Christian Mysticism, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage="For this sight I laught mightily, and that made them to laugh that were about me. }}