laughingstock

as in joke
a person or thing that is made fun of his nerdy clothes made him the laughingstock of the schoolyard

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of laughingstock Rick Pitino has turned this program from a laughingstock into a true title contender in just one year. Mark Davis, Newsweek, 15 Mar. 2025 Louisville is no longer a laughingstock in college basketball circles. Tim Casey, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2025 In defense of Perry, Variety chief correspondent Daniel D’Addario wrote in a column this week that becoming a laughingstock has only proven her star power. Ellise Shafer, Variety, 30 Apr. 2025 Save the primary beneficiary of that public money from more of the haphazard moves that have her franchise in the company of the league’s laughingstocks. Joe Rexrode, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for laughingstock
Recent Examples of Synonyms for laughingstock
Noun
  • She was raised in a society—a West Indian society—that did not put much of a premium on women’s bodies, where any kind of intimacy was a joke.
    Hilton Als, New Yorker, 30 June 2025
  • And yet the world is too driven by algorithms, too fragmented in its tastes, to ever be on the same page again and get the same jokes.
    Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 30 June 2025
Noun
  • President Trump has repeatedly called Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell stupid, terrible, a fool, and referred to him as a person of average mentality.
    Mike Patton, Forbes.com, 30 June 2025
  • That fool’s from my family’s hometown over there in Mexico.
    Carlos De Loera, Los Angeles Times, 19 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Laughingstock.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/laughingstock. Accessed 6 Jul. 2025.

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