giggles

1. 1
   nounplural

   A bout of uncontrollable laughter that is difficult to suppress once it starts.

   A fit of the giggles swept through the back row during the solemn ceremony.

   She tried to keep a straight face during the speech, but the giggles took over.

   Similarlaughter

   Note

   It behaves like the name of an ailment. It is always plural and always takes the, with no singular to fall back on, since a giggle is one laugh and never the attack. Its usual company shows the same frame: someone is seized with the giggles or has a bad case of them, as if catching a cold. It takes a plural verb, as in the giggles took over.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of giggle.

   Nervous giggles rippled across the audience as the speaker paused.

   The children's giggles filled the hallway after the puppet show.

   Note

   An ordinary count plural that serves both nouns behind it: the high-pitched, silly laugh, and the informal sense of fun or an amusing episode. Without an article it simply counts laughs, as in nervous giggles or the children's giggles. With the in front it can become a fit of uncontrollable laughing, a separate noun with no singular. The same spelling also works as the present-tense verb.

3. 3
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of giggle.

   He giggles at the slightest joke, even when no one else finds it funny.

   Whenever the teacher slips up, the whole class giggles at once.

   Note

   Agreement does the work here: any singular subject takes this -s form, including a group noun treated as one unit, as in the whole class giggles. The same spelling also serves the plural noun and a fit of the giggles. Grammar tells them apart: she giggles has a subject before it, while the giggles takes an article. The verb keeps the playful, nervous or affected tone of giggle itself.

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