Adjacent Words

Ridiculous definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

RIDIC'ULOUS, a. [L. ridiculus.]
That may justly excite laughter with contempt; as a ridiculous dress; ridiculous behavior. A fop and a dandy are ridiculous in their dress.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: inspiring scornful pity; "how silly an ardent and unsuccessful wooer can be especially if he is getting on in years"- Dashiell Hammett [syn: pathetic, ridiculous, silly]
2: incongruous;inviting ridicule; "the absurd excuse that the dog ate his homework"; "that's a cockeyed idea"; "ask a nonsensical question and get a nonsensical answer"; "a contribution so small as to be laughable"; "it is ludicrous to call a cottage a mansion"; "a preposterous attempt to turn back the pages of history"; "her conceited assumption of universal interest in her rather dull children was ridiculous" [syn: absurd, cockeyed, derisory, idiotic, laughable, ludicrous, nonsensical, preposterous, ridiculous]
3: broadly or extravagantly humorous; resembling farce; "the wild farcical exuberance of a clown"; "ludicrous green hair" [syn: farcical, ludicrous, ridiculous]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Latin ridiculosus (from ridiculum jest, from neuter of ridiculus) or ridiculus, literally, laughable, from rid?re to laugh Date: 1550 arousing or deserving ridicule ; absurd, preposterous Synonyms: see laughable • ridiculously adverb • ridiculousness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 deserving or inviting ridicule. 2 unreasonable, absurd. Derivatives: ridiculously adv. ridiculousness n. Etymology: L ridiculosus (as RIDICULE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ridiculous Ri*dic"u*lous, a. [L. ridiculosus, ridiculus, fr. ridere to laigh. Cf. Risible.] 1. Fitted to excite ridicule; absurd and laughable; unworthy of serious consideration; as, a ridiculous dress or behavior. Agricola, discerning that those little targets and unwieldy glaives ill pointed would soon become ridiculous against the thrust and close, commanded three Batavian cohorts . . . to draw up and come to handy strokes. --Milton. 2. Involving or expressing ridicule. [r.] [It] provokes me to ridiculous smiling. --Shak. Syn: Ludicrous; laughable; risible; droll; comical; absurd; preposterous. See Ludicrous. --- Ri*dic"u*lous*ly, adv. -- Ri*dic"u*lous*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you say that something or someone is ridiculous, you mean that they are very foolish. It is ridiculous to suggest we are having a romance... = absurd ADJ: oft it v-link ADJ that/to-inf

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Ludicrous, laughable, droll, funny, preposterous, farcical, comical, absurd, risible.

Moby Thesaurus

a bit thick, a bit thin, absurd, amusing, antic, barred, beyond belief, bizarre, closed-out, cockamamie, comic, comical, contrary to reason, crazy, doubtable, doubtful, droll, dubious, dubitable, eccentric, excluded, extravagant, fantastic, farcical, foolish, funny, grotesque, hard of belief, hard to believe, high-flown, hilarious, hopeless, humorous, implausible, impossible, improper, inane, inconceivable, incongruous, incredible, indecent, indelicate, insane, laughable, logically impossible, ludicrous, malodorous, mirthful, monstrous, nonsensical, not deserving belief, not possible, open to doubt, open to suspicion, outlandish, outrageous, outre, oxymoronic, paradoxical, passing belief, poppycockish, preposterous, priceless, problematic, prohibited, quaint, queer, questionable, quizzical, rich, risible, rough, ruled-out, screaming, self-contradictory, silly, staggering belief, stupid, suspect, suspicious, tall, thick, thin, unbecoming, unbelievable, unconvincing, undecorous, unearthly, ungodly, unimaginable, unseemly, unthinkable, unworthy of belief, weird, whimsical, wild, witty, zany