Word.ws English Dictionary

having the last laugh

having the last laugh is the present participle and gerund of have the last laugh.

Meaning of have the last laugh

Verb

have the last laugh (third-person singular simple present has the last laugh, present participle having the last laugh, simple past and past participle had the last laugh)

  1. (idiomatic) To be vindicated; to triumph despite predicted failure; to find success after defeat or setback.
    • The author had the last laugh over the publishers who had rejected her now best-selling book.

Questions about having the last laugh

What is having the last laugh the present participle and gerund of?
Having the last laugh is the present participle and gerund of have the last laugh.

Words near having the last laugh in the dictionary

  1. having the drop on
  2. having the first idea
  3. having the floor
  4. having the heart
  5. having the hots for
  6. having the last laugh
  7. having the laugh on one's side
  8. having the law of
  9. having the painters in
  10. having the pas of someone
  11. having the pleasure

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: having the last laugh (page history and authors); have the last laugh (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “having the last laugh.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/having_the_last_laugh. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.