Word.ws English Dictionary

laughing stocks

laughing stocks is the plural of laughing stock.

Meaning of laughing stock

Noun

laughing stock (plural laughing stocks)

  1. (idiomatic) An object of ridicule, someone who is publicly ridiculed; the butt of a joke.
    • Pray you let us not be
      laughing-stocks to other men's humours.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

Questions about laughing stocks

What is laughing stocks the plural of?
Laughing stocks is the plural of laughing stock.

Words near laughing stocks in the dictionary

  1. laughing sickness
  2. laughing soup
  3. laughing stalk
  4. laughing stalks
  5. laughing stock
  6. laughing stocks
  7. laughing tackle
  8. laughing thrush
  9. laughing thrushes
  10. laughing to scorn
  11. laughing turtle dove

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: laughing stocks (page history and authors); laughing stock (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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