chuckle

SayCHUK-uhl/ˈt͡ʃʌkəl/

Verbchuckles, chuckling, chuckled

Noun pluralchuckles

7 meanings of chuckle

Practice

1
verbintransitive
To laugh quietly or under your breath, often to yourself.
Old friends chuckle at jokes only they remember.
He chuckled to himself while reading the letter.
Similarchortle, giggle, laugh, titter, snicker
2
nouncountable
A low, quiet laugh.
His remark drew a quiet chuckle from the audience.
A few chuckles rippled through the meeting.
Similargiggle, chortle, titter, snigger
Note
The laughing family begins here. The word is chuck plus -le, the ending that turns a sound into a small repeated one, as in crackle or sparkle. The same origin also lies behind the farmyard senses, from the hen's clucking onward. Among its neighbors (chortle, giggle, snigger, titter), a chuckle is the low, warm one. A snigger turns sly, and a titter turns nervous.
3
verbtransitive
To express or convey something by chuckling.
The grandparents chuckle their fond memories to anyone who listens.
He chuckled a soft warning before changing the subject.
Similarchortle
Note
Here the verb takes the message as its object. You can chuckle your assent, your thanks or a warning, the way you can smile approval or nod agreement. The laugh carries the meaning, so the object is usually a short reply or attitude rather than words spoken outright. Without an object, the verb falls back into plain quiet laughing.

4
verbarchaicintransitive
To make the clucking sound characteristic of a chicken.
The brood hens chuckle contentedly among the straw.
A hen chuckled low as she settled over her eggs.
Note
Here the sound belongs to the farmyard: the low, contented noise of a hen, from the same chuck root as the laugh. It survives in older writing. In modern prose the ordinary verb is cluck, and a hen that chuckles will read either as old-fashioned or as a deliberate likening to human amusement. It takes no object, unlike the hen's summons.
5
verbarchaictransitive
To call others together, or call them to follow, in the way a hen clucks to gather or lead her chicks.
The hens chuckle their broods toward the feeding trough each morning.
if these Birds are within distance, here's that will chuckle 'em together
1690, [John] Dryden, Don Sebastian
Note
The hen's call is put to work here, with an object: the brood being gathered or led. Dryden's Don Sebastian, King of Portugal (1690) has "here's that will chuckle 'em together", and together is its natural partner, along with directions such as toward or under. In current English, call, gather or cluck to does the job without sounding antique.
6
verbarchaictransitive
To fondle, indulge, or pamper someone.
Doting aunts chuckle the children with sweets and constant praise.
He chuckled his youngest daughter, granting her every small wish.
Note
An affectionate verb from older English, it takes a person as its object, usually a favored one. Modern readers know only the laughing verb, so "he chuckled his daughter" now looks like a mistake rather than tenderness. In present-day writing, use pamper, indulge or fondle instead. When it appears in a passage quoted from an old text, it needs a gloss.
7
adjectiveobsolete
Clumsy or awkward in movement or manner.
Note
A separate word that happens to share the spelling, perhaps from chock, "a log", so the image behind it is the stiffness of a block of wood. It was an adjective in its own right, compared with more and most rather than -er and -est. It has long dropped out of use, and in modern writing clumsy is the word to reach for.

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Origins

Meanings 1–6

Formed from "chuck" combined with the suffix "-le".

Meaning 7

Perhaps from "chock," meaning "a log."