Definition
An object of ridicule, someone who is publicly ridiculed; the butt of a joke.
Origins
From laughing + stock (“source, supply; butt, target”). Compare also whipping-stock, jesting-stock.
In Context
- "Pray you let us not be laughing-stocks to other men's humours."
- "When he talked, he talked nonsense, and made himself the laughing-stock of his hearers."
- "If anyone can restore dignity to a franchise that has been close to a laughing stock in the last few years, it's Gibbs."
- "The split was supposedly triggered by racism — specifically anti-Jewish racism. But on this front, the Independent Group have already become a laughingstock."
- "Toronto Transit Corporation had real issues. [...] My boss was removed in a coup three months after my arrival. I stood in and my learning curve went through the roof. Over five years, we went from being a laughing stock to winning awards."
Also Said As
- ass
- asshole
- butt
- clown
- dead horse
- dumbass
- dummy
- fiddle
- figure of fun
- fool
- gapingstock
- idiot
- jerk
- joke
- jesting-stock
- laughingstock
- laughing stock
- lolcow
- make-sport
- makegame
- misfit
- scoffing-stock
- standing joke
- white elephant