laughing

Plurallaughings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of laugh.

   She kept laughing until tears rolled down her cheeks.

   Laughing loudly, he slapped the table and called for another round.

   Note

   The working verb form appears after be in progressive tenses (she was laughing) and as a gerund that still acts like a verb. That verbal grip is how to tell it from the plain noun. The gerund takes adverbs and objects, while the noun takes adjectives (loud laughing). Compare laughing loudly, laughing someone out of the room and laughing a reply, which carry over laugh's transitive uses.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The vocal act of expressing amusement, joy, or sometimes scorn, typically through repeated sounds and a smile.

   Laughing filled the room as the comedian delivered his punchline.

   There was so much laughing at the dinner table that no one finished eating.

   Similarlaughter, hilarity, mirth

   Oppositecrying, weeping

   Note

   An old formation, already lawghynge in Middle English and built then as now: laugh plus -ing. It is usually a mass noun (there was a lot of laughing), but it can also be counted. The plural laughings exists for separate bouts or kinds of it. Unlike the verb form, it behaves like any noun, taking articles and adjectives: the laughing, nervous laughing.

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