I 've known the young, who ridiculed his rage.
--Goldsmith.
Syn: To deride; banter; rally; burlesque; mock; satirize;
lampoon. See {Deride}.
This action . . . became so ridicule. --Aubrey.
[Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his
deficiencies made him the ridicule of his
contemporaries. --Buckle.
To the people . . . but a trifle, to the king but a
ridicule. --Foxe.
2. Remarks concerning a subject or a person designed to
excite laughter with a degree of contempt; wit of that
species which provokes contemptuous laughter;
disparagement by making a person an object of laughter;
banter; -- a term lighter than derision.
We have in great measure restricted the meaning of
ridicule, which would properly extend over whole
region of the ridiculous, -- the laughable, -- and
we have narrowed it so that in common usage it
mostly corresponds to ``derision'', which does
indeed involve personal and offensive feelings.
--Hare.
Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, Yet
touched and shamed by ridicule alone. --Pope.
3. Quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness. [Obs.]
To see the ridicule of this practice. --Addison.
Syn: Derision; banter; raillery; burlesque; mockery; irony;
satire; sarcasm; gibe; jeer; sneer.
Usage: {Ridicule}, {Derision}, Both words imply
disapprobation; but ridicule usually signifies
good-natured, fun-loving opposition without manifest
malice, while derision is commonly bitter and
scornful, and sometimes malignant.