ROFL

1. 1
   phraseinitialism

   Initialism of rolling on the floor, laughing; used to indicate great amusement.

   Her caption was so absurd that half the comments were just ROFL.

   I typed ROFL the moment I saw the blooper reel.

   Note

   A reaction typed rather than a statement made: it stands alone as a reply or caps a sentence, usually in capitals, and it belongs to online chat and text messages. As a phrase it never changes shape. Once it takes an ending, as in ROFLing or ROFLed, it has become the verb for laughing hard, with its own grammar.

2. 2
   verbinitialism

   Initialism of roll on the floor, laughing; to experience great amusement at something.

   We all ROFL whenever he retells the story about the goat.

   My coworkers ROFL at the office bloopers every single time.

   Note

   Capital letters take ordinary verb endings here: ROFLs, ROFLing, ROFLed, with no apostrophe or hyphen. It is intransitive, and the thing that amuses comes after at. Steve Hogarty's 2007 review in PC Zone has players "outwardly ROFLing at the absurd number of bugs." The progressive suits it well, often in a wry hypothetical: "I'd be ROFLing if it weren't so sad."

3. 3
   phrasedatedinitialism

   Initialism of ran out for lunch.

   Note

   A homograph of the laughing initialism, spelled out from a different phrase: ran out for lunch, built on the simple past of run. It is rare and dated, so a reader meeting the letters today will almost certainly take them as the laughter reply. If you mean you have stepped out, write the words.

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