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Humor   /hjˈumər/   Listen
noun
Humor  n.  (Written also humour)  
1.
Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc. Note: The ancient physicians believed that there were four humors (the blood, phlegm, yellow bile or choler, and black bile or melancholy), on the relative proportion of which the temperament and health depended.
2.
(Med.) A vitiated or morbid animal fluid, such as often causes an eruption on the skin. "A body full of humors."
3.
State of mind, whether habitual or temporary (as formerly supposed to depend on the character or combination of the fluids of the body); disposition; temper; mood; as, good humor; ill humor. "Examine how your humor is inclined, And which the ruling passion of your mind." "A prince of a pleasant humor." "I like not the humor of lying."
4.
pl. Changing and uncertain states of mind; caprices; freaks; vagaries; whims. "Is my friend all perfection, all virtue and discretion? Has he not humors to be endured?"
5.
That quality of the imagination which gives to ideas an incongruous or fantastic turn, and tends to excite laughter or mirth by ludicrous images or representations; a playful fancy; facetiousness. "For thy sake I admit That a Scot may have humor, I'd almost said wit." "A great deal of excellent humor was expended on the perplexities of mine host."
Aqueous humor, Crystalline humor or Crystalline lens, Vitreous humor. (Anat.) See Eye.
Out of humor, dissatisfied; displeased; in an unpleasant frame of mind.
Synonyms: Wit; satire; pleasantry; temper; disposition; mood; frame; whim; fancy; caprice. See Wit.



verb
Humor  v. t.  (past & past part. humored; pres. part. humoring)  
1.
To comply with the humor of; to adjust matters so as suit the peculiarities, caprices, or exigencies of; to adapt one's self to; to indulge by skillful adaptation; as, to humor the mind. "It is my part to invent, and the musician's to humor that invention."
2.
To help on by indulgence or compliant treatment; to soothe; to gratify; to please. "You humor me when I am sick."
Synonyms: To gratify; to indulge. See Gratify.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Humor" Quotes from Famous Books



... out into the bitterly cold room, and crept shivering into his clothes. He never quite understood Ford's sense of humor, at such times, but he had learned that it is more comfortable to crawl out of bed than to be kicked out, and that vituperation is a mere waste of time when matched against sheer heartlessness ...
— The Uphill Climb • B. M. Bower

... my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humor to the last. ...
— A Budget of Christmas Tales by Charles Dickens and Others • Various

... before seen a collection so admirably adapted for its purpose. Prose and verse, humor, eloquence, description, alteration, burlesque discourse of every kind.... For schools, clubs, and fireside amusement, it will be found an almost inexhaustible source of entertainment.... The instruction ... is sensible ...
— Captain Sam - The Boy Scouts of 1814 • George Cary Eggleston

... contemporary history, which other books are not, and you have fairly set solid London city aloft, afloat in bright mirage in the air. I quarrel only with the popular assumption, which is perhaps a condition of the Humor itself, that the state of society is a new state, and was not the same thing in the days of Rabelais and of Aristophanes, as of Carlyle. Orators always allow something to masses, out of love to their own art, whilst austere philosophy will only know the particles. This were of no importance, ...
— The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II. • Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson

... indeed; but this seems justified by the oppression of the times and by the barbarous severity of the game laws. An intense hatred of shams and injustice lurks in every song; but the hatred is saved from bitterness by the humor with which captives, especially rich churchmen, are solemnly lectured by the bandits, while they squirm at sight of devilish tortures prepared before their eyes in order to make them give up their golden purses; and the scene generally ends in a bit of ...
— English Literature - Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World • William J. Long


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