laughing stock
Object of ridicule
A laughing stock is a person or thing that becomes an object of ridicule or mockery.
The term implies public humiliation—being laughed at by many rather than one: His failed predictions made him the laughing stock of the industry.
Also spelled as one word: laughingstock.
- buttRear of body
- punching bagSuspended striking target
- whipping boyDesignated recipient of punishment
- ridiculeContemptuous mocking treatment
- buffoonLudicrous, clumsy fool
fall guy · derision · mockery · fool · stooge · sad sack · point · byword · fair game · joke · running joke · village idiot · dupe · target · tease · court jester · humiliation · scapegoat
- laughtergiggling, chuckling, snickering, giggles, chortling
- Shakespeare phrasesto be or not to be, et tu Brute, all the world's a stage, out damned spot, friends Romans countrymen