Citations:laugh

English citations of laugh

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c. 1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, act I, scenes ii resp. iii:
But there was such laughing! Queen Hecuba laugh'd that her eyes ran o'er.

From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause.

1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, act II, scenes i resp. ii:
Will you laugh me asleep, for I am very heavy?

I shall laugh myself to death.

1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress:
Therefore Passion had not so much reason to laugh at Patience, because he had his good things first, as Patience will have to laugh at Passion, because he had his best things last; for first must give place to last, because last must have his time to come; but last gives place to nothing; for there is not another to succeed.

ATHEIST. I laugh to see what ignorant persons you are, to take upon you so tedious a journey, and you are like to have nothing but your travel for your pains.

1693, John Dryden, "Of the Pythagorean Philosophy", from the 15th book of Ovid's Metamorphoses:
Then laughs the childish year, with flowerets crowned […]

1731-1735, Alexander Pope, Moral Essays:
No wit to flatter left of all his store, No fool to laugh at, which he valu'd more.

1734, Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, Chapter 3:
In Folly’s cup ſtill laughs the bubble Joy.

1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:
"I have come to bring you home, dear brother!" said the child, clapping her tiny hands, and bending down to laugh. "To bring you home, home, home!"

1866, Louisa May Alcott, Behind A Mask or, A Woman's Power; Chapter 8:
Fairfax addressed her as "my lady," she laughed her musical laugh, and glanced up at a picture of Gerald with eyes full of exultation.

1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 3:
There was something about him, Harry, that amused me. He was such a monster. You will laugh at me, I know, but I really went in and paid a whole guinea for the stage-box. To the present day I can't make out why I did so; and yet if I hadn't! – my dear Harry, if I hadn't, I would have missed the greatest romance of my life. I see you are laughing. It is horrid of you!"

1899, Stephen Crane, Twelve O'Clock:
The roars of laughter which greeted his proclamation were of two qualities; some men laughing because they knew all about cuckoo-clocks, and other men laughing because they had concluded that the eccentric Jake had been victimised by some wise child of civilisation.

1906, Jack London, Moon-Face:
"You refuse to take me seriously," Lute said, when she had laughed her appreciation. "How can I take that Planchette rigmarole seriously?"

1967, The Beatles, Penny Lane:
On the corner is a banker with a motorcar / The little children laugh at him behind his back
1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 122:
At any other time Jessamy would have laughed at the expressions that chased each other over his freckled face: crossness left over from his struggle with the baby; incredulity; distress; and finally delight.

1979, Monty Python, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life:
If life seems jolly rotten / There's something you've forgotten / And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.

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1803, Oliver Goldsmith, The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: With an Account of His Life, page 45:
And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:
It was a great surprise to Scrooge, while listening to the moaning of the wind, and thinking what a solemn thing it was to move on through the lonely darkness over an unknown abyss, whose depths were secrets as profound as Death: it was a great surprise to Scrooge, while thus engaged, to hear a hearty laugh.

If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a man more blest in a laugh than Scrooge's nephew, all I can say is, I should like to know him too.

1869, F. W. Robertson, Lectures and Addresses on Literary and Social Topics, page 87:
That man is a bad man who has not within him the power of a hearty laugh.

1921, Ring Lardner, The Big Town: How I and the Mrs. Go to New York to See Life and Get Katie a Husband, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 73:
“And this rug,” he says, stomping on an old rag carpet. “How much do you suppose that cost?” ¶ It was my first guess, so I said fifty dollars. ¶ “That’s a laugh,” he said. “I paid two thousand for that rug.”

1979, Monty Python, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Life's a piece of shit / When you look at it / Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.

2010, The Times, March 14, 2010, Tamzin Outhwaite, the unlikely musical star
Outhwaite is a good laugh, yes, she knows how to smile: but deep down, she really is strong and stern.