humor

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

n. disposition, mood, tem-per; caprice, drollery, wit; fun; jest; choler, melancholy, depression, anger; facetiousness. See feeling. —v. t. indulge, favor, oblige, gratify. See permission, tendency, flattery.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Comedy]

Syn. amusement, jesting, raillery, joking, merriment, buffoonery, tomfoolery, badinage, clowning, jocularity, jocoseness, farce, drollery, facetiousness, black humor, salt, whimsicality, comedy stuff*, laugh business*; see also entertainment 1 , fun .

2. [An example of humor]

Syn. witticism, pleasantry, banter; see joke 1 , 2 .

3. [The ability to appreciate comedy]

Syn. good humor, sense of humor, wittiness, high spirits, merry disposition, joviality, jolliness, jocularity, jocundity, gaiety, joyfulness, playfulness, happy frame of mind, jauntiness; see also happiness 1 .

4. [Mood]

Syn. disposition, frame of mind, temper; see mood 1 .

See Synonym Study at mood , wit .

• out of humor,

Syn. cross, disagreeable, grouchy; see irritable .

v.

Syn. indulge, pamper, baby, play up to, gratify, please, pet, coddle, tickle, gladden, mollycoddle, spoil, oblige, comply with, appease, placate, soften, be playful with; see also comfort , entertain 1 , satisfy 1 .

Ant. provoke, anger, enrage.

Syn.- humor suggests compliance with the mood or whim of another [ they humored the dying man ] ; indulge implies a yielding to the wishes or deSires of oneself or another, as because of a weak will or an amiable nature; pamper implies overindulgence or excessive gratification; spoil emphasizes the harm done to the personality or character by overindulgence or excessive attention [ grandparents often spoil children ] ; baby suggests the sort of pampering and devoted care lavished on infants and connotes a potential loss of self-reliance [ because he was sickly, his mother continued to baby him ]

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. comedy funniness, jest, wit, facetiousness, jocularity, buffoonery, slapstick, drollery, whimsy, parody, satire.

2. mood temperament, disposition, spirits, frame of mind, bent. ''Truth in an intoxicated condition.''—George Jean Nathan. ''Pleasantry in pain.''—Moritz Saphir. ''Playful aggression.''—Emil Draitser.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I noun 1. The quality of being laughable or comical: comedy, comicality, comicalness, drollery, drollness, farcicality, funniness, humorousness, jocoseness, jocosity, jocularity, ludicrousness, ridiculousness, wit, wittiness, zaniness. See LAUGHTER. 2. A person's customary manner of emotional response: complexion, disposition, nature, temper, temperament. See BE. 3. A temporary state of mind or feeling: frame of mind, mood, spirit (used in plural), temper, vein. See FEELINGS. 4. An impulsive, often illogical turn of mind: bee, boutade, caprice, conceit, fancy, freak, impulse, megrim, notion, vagary, whim, whimsy. Idiom: bee in one's bonnet. See THOUGHTS. II verb To comply with the wishes or ideas of (another): cater, gratify, indulge. See RESIST.