different between eat vs laugh

English

Etymology

From Middle English eten, from Old English etan (“to eat”), from Proto-West Germanic *etan, from Proto-Germanic *etan? (“to eat”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?édti, from *h?ed- (“to eat”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /i?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /it/
• Rhymes: -i?t

Verb

eat (third-person singular simple present eats, present participle eating, simple past ate or (dialectal) et or (obsolete) eat, past participle eaten or (dialectal) etten)

1. To ingest; to be ingested.
   1. (transitive, intransitive) To consume (something solid or semi-solid, usually food) by putting it into the mouth and swallowing it.
      • At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.
   3. (intransitive) To consume a meal.
      • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

        I eat in the kitchen.

   4. (intransitive, ergative) To be eaten.
      • 1852, The New Monthly Magazine (page 310)

        I don't know any quarter in England where you get such undeniable mutton—mutton that eats like mutton, instead of the nasty watery, stringy, turnipy stuff, neither mutton nor lamb, that other countries are inundated with.

      • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

        […] dish him [the fish] with slices of oranges, barberries, grapes, gooseberries, and butter; and you will find that he eats deliriously either with farced pain or gammon pain.

   5. (copulative, intransitive) To have a particular quality of diet; to be well-fed or underfed (typically as "eat healthy" or "eat good").
2. To use up.
   1. (transitive) To destroy, consume, or use up.
      • 1857-1859, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians

        His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages.

   2. (transitive, informal, of a device) To damage, destroy, or fail to eject a removable part or an inserted object.
      • 1991, Shane Black, The Last Boy Scout (movie)

        No! There's a problem with the cassette player. Don't press fast forward or it eats the tape!

   3. (transitive, informal, of a vending machine or similar device) To consume money (or other instruments of value, such as a token) deposited or inserted by a user, while failing to either provide the intended product or service, or return the payment.
      • 1977, Nancy Dowd, Slap Shot (movie)

        Hey! This stupid [soda vending] machine ate my quarter.

3. (transitive, informal) To cause (someone) to worry.

4. (transitive, business) To take the loss in a transaction.
   • 1988, George Gallo, Midnight Run (movie)

     I have to have him in court tomorrow, if he doesn't show up, I forfeit the bond and I have to eat the $300,000.
5. (transitive, slang) To be injured or killed by (something such as a firearm or its projectile), especially in the mouth.
   • 1944, William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman, The Big Sleep (screenplay)

     I risk my whole future, the hatred of the cops and Eddie Mars' gang. I dodge bullets and eat saps.

   • 1997, A. A. Gill, "Diary" (in The Spectator, 1 November 1997):

     Friends are only necessary in the ghastly country, where you have to have them, along with rubber boots and a barometer and secateurs, to put off bucolic idiocy, a wet brain, or eating the 12-bore.

   • 2012, Kaya McLaren, How I Came to Sparkle Again: A Novel, St. Martin's Press (?ISBN):

     Mike had been to other calls where someone had eaten a gun. He knew to expect teeth embedded in the ceiling and brains dripping off it.

   • 2017, Edward W. Robertson, Stardust, Edward W. Robertson:

     The animal was sweating and scared and MacAdams was surprised when they finished up without either of them eating a kick.

   • 2018, Daniel Tomazic, Of Bullies and Men: Young Adult Fiction (?ISBN), page 18:

     There was a resounding smacking noise and Georgy was sure Philip had just eaten a fist.

6. (transitive, intransitive) To corrode or erode.

7. (transitive, slang) To perform oral sex (on a person or body part).

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (consume): consume, swallow; see also Thesaurus:eat
• (cause to worry): bother, disturb, worry
• (eat a meal): dine, breakfast, chow down, feed one's face, have one's breakfast/lunch/dinner/supper/tea, lunch

Derived terms

Related terms

• fret
• ort

Translations

See also

• drink
• edible
• food

Noun

eat (plural eats)

1. (colloquial) Something to be eaten; a meal; a food item.
   • 2011, William Chitty, ?Nigel Barker, ?Michael Valos, Integrated Marketing Communications (page 167)

     Eating a Picnic creates a flurry of wafer pieces, flying peanuts and chocolate crumbs. […] As well as being messy, Picnic happens to be a big eat – something of a consumption challenge in fact.

Anagrams

• -ate, AET, Até, Atë, ETA, TEA, Tea, a.e.t., aet, ate, eta, tea, æt.

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?e.at/, [?eät?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?e.at/, [????t?]

Verb

eat

1. third-person singular present active subjunctive of e?

Northern Sami

Pronunciation

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /?ea?h(t)/

Verb

eat

1. first-person plural present of ii

West Frisian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???t/

Pronoun

eat

1. something, anything

   Antonym: neat

Further reading

• “eat”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Alternative forms

• laff (eye dialect)
• laughe (archaic)
• larf (Cockney eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle English laughen, laghen, from (Anglian) Old English hlæhhan, hlehhan, (West Saxon) hliehhan, from Proto-West Germanic *hlahhjan, from Proto-Germanic *hlahjan?.

Pronunciation

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /la?f/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /l??f/
• (General American) enPR: l?f, IPA^(key): /læf/
• Rhymes: -??f, -æf

Noun

laugh (plural laughs)

1. An expression of mirth particular to the human species; the sound heard in laughing; laughter.
   • 1803, Oliver Goldsmith, The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: With an Account of His Life, page 45:

     And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

   • 1869, F. W. Robertson, Lectures and Addresses on Literary and Social Topics, page 87:

     That man is a bad man who has not within him the power of a hearty laugh.

2. Something that provokes mirth or scorn.
   • 1921, Ring Lardner, The Big Town: How I and the Mrs. Go to New York to See Life and Get Katie a Husband, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 73:

     “And this rug,” he says, stomping on an old rag carpet. “How much do you suppose that cost?” ¶ It was my first guess, so I said fifty dollars. ¶ “That’s a laugh,” he said. “I paid two thousand for that rug.”

   • 1979, Monty Python, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

     Life's a piece of shit / When you look at it / Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.

3. (Britain, New Zealand) A fun person.
   • 2010, The Times, March 14, 2010, Tamzin Outhwaite, the unlikely musical star

     Outhwaite is a good laugh, yes, she knows how to smile: but deep down, she really is strong and stern.

Synonyms

• (expression of mirth): cackle, chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, snicker, snigger, titter, cachinnation
• (something that provokes mirth or scorn): joke, laughing stock

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

laugh (third-person singular simple present laughs, present participle laughing, simple past and past participle laughed)

1. (intransitive) To show mirth, satisfaction, or derision, by peculiar movement of the muscles of the face, particularly of the mouth, causing a lighting up of the face and eyes, and usually accompanied by the emission of explosive or chuckling sounds from the chest and throat; to indulge in laughter.
   • 1899, Stephen Crane, Twelve O’Clock:

     The roars of laughter which greeted his proclamation were of two qualities; some men laughing because they knew all about cuckoo-clocks, and other men laughing because they had concluded that the eccentric Jake had been victimised by some wise child of civilisation.

   • 1979, Monty Python, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life:

     If life seems jolly rotten / There's something you've forgotten / And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.

2. (intransitive, figuratively, obsolete) To be or appear cheerful, pleasant, mirthful, lively, or brilliant; to sparkle; to sport.
3. (intransitive, followed by "at") To make an object of laughter or ridicule; to make fun of; to deride; to mock.
   • 1967, The Beatles, Penny Lane:

     On the corner is a banker with a motorcar / The little children laugh at him behind his back

4. (transitive) To affect or influence by means of laughter or ridicule.
5. (transitive) To express by, or utter with, laughter.
   • 1866, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 8, in Behind a Mask, or A Woman’s Power:

     Fairfax addressed her as "my lady," she laughed her musical laugh, and glanced up at a picture of Gerald with eyes full of exultation.

   • 1906, Jack London, Moon-Face:

     "You refuse to take me seriously," Lute said, when she had laughed her appreciation. "How can I take that Planchette rigmarole seriously?"

Conjugation

Usage notes

The simple past tense forms laught, laugh'd and low and the past participles laught, laugh'd and laughen also exist, but are obsolete.

Synonyms

• (show mirth by peculiar movement of the muscles of the face): cackle, chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, snicker, snigger, titter
• See also Thesaurus:laugh

Antonyms

• (show mirth by peculiar movement of the muscles of the face): cry, weep

Coordinate terms

• (show mirth by peculiar movement of the muscles of the face): cry, frown, scowl, smile

Derived terms

Related terms

• laughster
• laughter

Translations

Note: the following were in a translation table for "be or appear gay", which, given the modern meanings, is misleading; the title of this table has now been changed to "be or appear cheerful". The translations therefore need to be checked.

• Slovene: ^{(please verify)} nasmejan (biti)

See also

• comedy
• gelotology
• funny
• ha ha
• tee hee, tee hee hee

Anagrams

• Aghul

Middle English

Noun

laugh

1. Alternative form of lawe