Guffaw vs Laughter - What's the difference?
guffaw | laughter |
A boisterous laugh
*
* 1906 , , ch. xx,
* 1936 , , ch. 15,
To laugh boisterously.
* 1891 , , ch. 15,
* 1900 , ,
The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound.
*{{quote-book, year=1899, author=(Stephen Crane)
, title=, chapter=1
, passage=There was some laughter , and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town.}}
A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the laughing face, particularly of the lips, and of the whole body, with a peculiar expression of the eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction or derision, and usually attended by a sonorous and interrupted expulsion of air from the lungs.
* (Thomas Browne) (1605-1682)
* (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) (1807-1882)
(label) A reason for merriment.
As nouns the difference between guffaw and laughter
is that guffaw is a boisterous laugh while laughter is the sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound.As a verb guffaw
is to laugh boisterously.guffaw
English
Noun
(en noun)- 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.
- He walked to the edge and they heard his hoarse guffaw of laughter as the arrows clanged and clattered against his impenetrable mail.
- 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 laughVerb
(en verb)- He guffawed at his adversaries.
- Peter, on the contrary, threw back his head and guffawed thunderously.
Synonyms
* See alsolaughter
English
Alternative forms
* (l) (obsolete)Noun
(wikipedia laughter) (en-noun)- The act of laughter , which is a sweet contraction of the muscles of the face, and a pleasant agitation of the vocal organs, is not merely, or totally within the jurisdiction of ourselves.
- Archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes overrunning with laughter .