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adjective

Risible adj.

Having the faculty or power of laughing; disposed to laugh. "Laughing is our busines,... it has been made the definition of man that he is risible."

Exciting laughter; worthy to be laughed at; amusing. "Risible absurdities." "I hope you find nothing risible in my complaisance."

Used in, or expressing, laughter; as, risible muscles. Note: Risible is sometimes used as a noun, in the plural, for the feeling of amusement and for the muscles and other organs used in laughing, collectively; as, unable to control one's risibles.

Synonyms: Ludicrous; laughable; amusing; ridiculous Risible, Ludicrous, Ridiculous. Risible differs from ludicrous as species from genus; ludicrous expressing that which is playful and sportive; risible, that which may excite laughter. Risible differs from ridiculous, as the latter implies something contemptuous, and risible does not.

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Etymology of 'Risible'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Risible" Quotes from Famous Books

... too much for Paganel's risible faculties. He burst out laughing. Toline did not know what to make of him. He had done his best to answer every question put to him. But the singularity of the answers were not his blame; indeed, he never imagined anything singular about them. However, he took it all quietly, and ...

— In Search of the Castaways • Jules Verne

... this provoking advantage over sturdy honesty or nervous sensibility—their amusing fictions affect the world more than the plain tale that would put them down. They excite our risible emotions, while they are reducing their adversary to contempt—otherwise they would not be distinguished from gross slanderers. When the wit has gained over the laughers on his side, he has struck a blow which puts his adversary hors de combat. A grave reply can never wound ridicule, ...

— Calamities and Quarrels of Authors • Isaac D'Israeli

... raise a laugh. To deny that there are throughout the prints which I have mentioned circumstances introduced of a laughable tendency, would be to run counter to the common notions of mankind; but to suppose that in their ruling character they appeal chiefly to the risible faculty, and not first and foremost to the very heart of man, its best and most serious feelings, would be to mistake no less grossly their aim and purpose. A set of severer Satires (for they are not so much Comedies, which they have been likened to, as they are strong and masculine Satires) ...

— The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 • Charles Lamb

... still visible above the instep; and the tops—whose pampered appetites have been fed on champagne—are of the most delicate cream-colour, the whole devoid of mud or speck. The animal he bestrides is no less calculated than himself to excite the risible faculties of the field, being a sort of mouse colour, with dun mane and tail, got by Nicolo, out of a flibbertigibbet mare, and he stands seventeen hands and an inch. His head is small and blood-like, his girth a mere trifle, and his legs, very ...

— Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities • Robert Smith Surtees