RISIBLE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Risible

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adjective

Risible adj.

Having the faculty or power of laughing; disposed to laugh. "Laughing is our busines,... it has been made the definition of man that he is risible."

Exciting laughter; worthy to be laughed at; amusing. "Risible absurdities." "I hope you find nothing risible in my complaisance."

Used in, or expressing, laughter; as, risible muscles. Note: Risible is sometimes used as a noun, in the plural, for the feeling of amusement and for the muscles and other organs used in laughing, collectively; as, unable to control one's risibles.

Synonyms: Ludicrous; laughable; amusing; ridiculous Risible, Ludicrous, Ridiculous. Risible differs from ludicrous as species from genus; ludicrous expressing that which is playful and sportive; risible, that which may excite laughter. Risible differs from ridiculous, as the latter implies something contemptuous, and risible does not.

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Etymology of 'Risible'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Risible" Quotes from Famous Books

... and with a countenance strongly expressive of horror, begged to be informed if this were really the stream. I received an answer in the affirmative, the solemnity of which was too much, first, for the risible faculties of my young companion, and then for my own. We literally roared with laughter. But we checked ourselves as soon as possible, and having explained to our guide how widely different were our notions of angling from his, had the satisfaction to perceive that no offence was given. ...

— Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, Visited in 1837. Vol. II • G. R. Gleig

... required little pressing. He took a sip of punch and commenced his relation. Though meant to produce a totally different effect, the narrative seemed to excite the risible propensities rather than the commiseration of his auditor; and when Mr. Wood wound it up by a description of the drenching he had undergone at the Mint pump, the other could hold out no longer, but, leaning back in his chair, gave ...

— Jack Sheppard - A Romance • William Harrison Ainsworth

... was, somehow, both an awe-inspiring and a slightly risible sight. Six feet one and one-half inches tall in his flat feet, Boyd posted around over two hundred and twenty pounds of bone, flesh and muscle. He swung a pot-belly of startling proportions under the silk ...

— Brain Twister • Gordon Randall Garrett

... dream that you meet anything but becomingly dressed 'policy;' and fashionable 'diplomacy' has hunted 'insincerity'—that other horrid remnant of old-fogyism—as far away from civilization as are the lava beds of the Modocs. If ghosts have risible faculties, how Machiavelli must laugh, watching us from the Elysian Fields! Sometimes silence is power; ...

— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson

... in this speech, but a good deal of risible matter had accumulated in Tim's diaphragm during its delivery which he had to get rid of, and ...

— The Red Acorn • John McElroy

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