laugh down
C1 formal separable transitive
In simple words
To laugh at someone's idea or speech in a way that makes them stop or feel too embarrassed to continue.
Literal meaning: To bring something 'down' — reduce its status or silence it — using laughter as the force.
Meanings
1 C1
idiomatic
formal
To silence or reject a person, proposal, or idea by greeting it with contemptuous laughter.
"His radical proposal was laughed down by the committee before he even finished presenting it."
Grammar: separable
2 C1
idiomatic
informal
To humiliate someone publicly through mockery until they are unable to continue.
"The hecklers laughed down every attempt the performer made to recover her composure."
Grammar: separable
Usage notes
Somewhat literary or formal in tone. Often describes a collective public response — an audience or group laughing down a speaker's ideas. Less used in everyday conversation.
Commonly used with
proposal speaker suggestion idea protest critic
Forms
Base
laugh down
I/you/we/they
3rd person
laughs down
he/she/it
Past simple
laughed down
yesterday
Past participle
laughed down
have + pp
-ing form
laughing down
continuous
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Synonyms
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