laughingstock


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laughing stock

A person who is the subject of mockery after a blunder. If I mess up this speech, I'll be the laughing stock of the school!
See also: laugh, stock

make (someone, something, or oneself) a laughingstock

To subject someone or something to a mockery or ridicule; to make fun of someone or something. The president's decision to appoint TV personalities as her advisors has made our country a laughingstock of our country in front of the entire world. I felt I was making myself a laughingstock wearing such a silly costume in broad daylight.
See also: laughingstock, make

make a laughingstock of (someone, something, or oneself)

To subject someone or something to a mockery or ridicule; to make fun of someone or something. The president's decision to appoint TV personalities as her advisors has made a laughingstock of our country in front of the entire world. I felt I was making a laughingstock of myself, wearing such a silly costume in broad daylight.
See also: laughingstock, make, of

laughingstock

someone or something that is the target of ridicule. After he passed out at the president's dinner, he became the laughingstock of all his colleagues.

make a laughingstock of (oneself or something)

 and make (oneself or something) a laughingstock
to make oneself a source of ridicule or laughter; to do something that invites ridicule. Laura made herself a laughingstock by arriving at the fast-food restaurant in full evening dress. The board of directors made the company a laughingstock by hiring an ex-convict as president.
See also: laughingstock, make, of

make a laughingstock of

Lay open to ridicule, as in They made a laughingstock of the chairman by inviting him to the wrong meeting-place, or She felt she was making a laughingstock of herself, always wearing the wrong clothes for the occasion . The noun laughingstock replaced the earlier mockingstock and sportingstock, now obsolete. The idiom was first recorded in 1667.
See also: laughingstock, make, of

laughing stock

a person subjected to general mockery or ridicule.
See also: laugh, stock
References in periodicals archive ?
A discerning UO colleague, who has endured a real-life chilling experience with the BRT, has told me: "Now that we have become a laughingstock to the entire nation due to our relationship with the BRT, nothing could be more important than discussing this issue with the entire faculty and staff."
Bias Response Team needs thorough review
"Once again culture warriors on the state board are putting Texas at risk of becoming a national laughingstock on science education," TFN President Kathy Miller said.
Texas education board may be preparing for a new attack on evolution
One account says the crew of the "Rattler" became the laughingstock of the nation, for it was the first time a small cavalry had captured the crew of an ironclad gunboat.
Ghost town: Rodney history dates back to early 1800s
Hong Kong will certainly not become a laughingstock of public opinion worldwide.
Asian editorial excerpts
If Iran is shown to be acting just the way it condemns when others do it, the regime risks making itself a laughingstock.
Bahrain says it seizes Iranian drone
As Volokh points out in the amicus brief, this reading of the law could apply to a columnist who announces his intent to ridicule a legislator over a vote, activists who picket a store with the aim of disgracing and ostracizing the owner because of his decision to sell a controversial product, or a politician who runs against an incumbent and promises to make him a laughingstock by exposing the deficiencies of his record.
Critics as criminals: intimidating intimidation law
When Beets tells him that he's the laughingstock of Frisian journalism and contemptuously spits in his face, it triggers a violent rage that makes him grab Beets's head and bang it against the floor so hard and often that it kills his antagonist.
Sietse de Vries. Bak
"We had a miserable track record and were the laughingstock of the league.
A League of His Own
Cardinal Raymond Burke made himself a laughingstock when he visited the UK and swanned around with acres of red ball gown behind him, but the whole of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is bringing the ancient and apostolic office of bishop into disrepute--with Rome's support.
The bishops' train of thought
"Florida was the laughingstock of the nation again this year when it came to voting.
As they see it
Consequently, Born-Again religion, as Marshall successfully demonstrates in the rest of the book, forms an alternative form of piety that responds to the manifold crises that have made Nigeria a veritable laughingstock in the eyes of the world.
Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria
Ownership coupled with politics turned journalism in a laughingstock. Therefore, the owners of the media in Macedonia say that 'journalism is sold at a high price only when it is subjugated'.
Journalistic yes-men
Any transaction that makes you a laughingstock among customers is one you want out of your showcase.
A $2,000 mistake
Most students refuse to answer to the teacher in the classroom on the ground that they are most likely to be the laughingstock of their class fellows.
Even Homer sometimes nods - How to correct our students' errors (Education)
That sounds like a bad idea, I know, but he could've maybe got away with an extra surname if only he had selected "Laughingstock".) This week I've found a way to like The Apprentice without feeling guilty because it's dawned on me that The Apprentice is somehow managing to get a satire on the hollowness of contemporary capitalism on to primetime TV.
I'd fire the lot of them; MY LIFE My place
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