Ridiculous vs. Ridicule

Ridiculousadjective

Deserving of ridicule; foolish; absurd.

‘That hairstyle looks ridiculous.’; ‘It's ridiculous to charge so much for a little souvenir.’; ‘You make ridiculous statements a lot, like saying that UFOs are real.’;

Ridiculeverb

(transitive) to criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of

‘His older sibling constantly ridiculed him with sarcastic remarks.’;

Ridiculousadjective

Fitted to excite ridicule; absurd and laughable; unworthy of serious consideration; as, a ridiculous dress or behavior.

‘Agricola, discerning that those little targets and unwieldy glaives ill pointed would soon become ridiculous against the thrust and close, commanded three Batavian cohorts . . . to draw up and come to handy strokes.’;

Ridiculenoun

derision; mocking or humiliating words or behaviour

Ridiculousadjective

Involving or expressing ridicule.

‘[It] provokes me to ridiculous smiling.’;

Ridiculenoun

An object of sport or laughter; a laughing stock.

Ridiculousadjective

inspiring scornful pity;

‘how silly an ardent and unsuccessful wooer can be especially if he is getting on in years’;

Ridiculenoun

The quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.

Ridiculousadjective

completely devoid of wisdom or good sense;

‘the absurd excuse that the dog ate his homework’; ‘that's a cockeyed idea’; ‘ask a nonsensical question and get a nonsensical answer’; ‘a contribution so small as to be laughable’; ‘it is ludicrous to call a cottage a mansion’; ‘a preposterous attempt to turn back the pages of history’; ‘her conceited assumption of universal interest in her rather dull children was ridiculous’;

Ridiculenoun

A small woman's handbag; a reticule.

Ridiculousadjective

broadly or extravagantly humorous; resembling farce;

‘the wild farcical exuberance of a clown’; ‘ludicrous green hair’;

Ridiculeadjective

(obsolete) ridiculous

‘This action ... became so ridicule. — Aubrey.’;

Ridiculousadjective

deserving or inviting derision or mockery; absurd

‘it seems absolutely ridiculous that anyone would try to pull a stunt like this’; ‘that ridiculous tartan cap’;

Ridiculenoun

An object of sport or laughter; a laughingstock; a laughing matter.

‘[Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries.’; ‘To the people . . . but a trifle, to the king but a ridicule.’;

Ridiculous

To be ridiculous is to be something which is highly incongruous or inferior, sometimes deliberately so to make people laugh or get their attention, and sometimes unintendedly so as to be considered laughable and earn or provoke ridicule and derision. It comes from the 1540s Latin meaning , from meaning , and from meaning .

‘ridiculosus’; ‘laughable’; ‘ridiculus’; ‘that which excites laughter’; ‘ridere’; ‘to laugh’;

Ridiculenoun

Remarks concerning a subject or a person designed to excite laughter with a degree of contempt; wit of that species which provokes contemptuous laughter; disparagement by making a person an object of laughter; banter; - a term lighter than derision.

‘We have in great measure restricted the meaning of ridicule, which would properly extend over whole region of the ridiculous, - the laughable, - and we have narrowed it so that in common usage it mostly corresponds to "derision", which does indeed involve personal and offensive feelings.’; ‘Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne,Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone.’;

Ridiculenoun

Quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.

‘To see the ridicule of this practice.’;

Ridiculeverb

To laugh at mockingly or disparagingly; to awaken ridicule toward or respecting.

‘I 've known the young, who ridiculed his rage.’;

Ridiculeadjective

Ridiculous.

‘This action . . . became so ridicule.’;

Ridiculenoun

language or behavior intended to mock or humiliate

Ridiculenoun

the act of deriding or treating with contempt

Ridiculeverb

subject to laughter or ridicule;

‘The satirists ridiculed the plans for a new opera house’; ‘The students poked fun at the inexperienced teacher’; ‘His former students roasted the professor at his 60th birthday’;