ha-ha n.1
1. (US) a laugh of ridicule or derision; also attrib.
 | letter Sept. to ed. of Central News Agency in Evans & Skinner Jack the Ripper (2001) 16-17: I saved some of the proper red stuff [...] to write with but it went thick like glue and I cant use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope ha.ha. | |
| Amherst Olio 164: All the peops in the chapel gathered, / Raised a shout of merry ha-has [HDAS]. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Richmond Dispatch (VA) 12 Oct. 13/2: I guess some hayseed had sprung a good one, for everybody was there with the ha-ha. | |
| Smoke Bellew Pt 10 🌐 It’s the big ha! ha! for you an’ me, Smoke. We won’t never dast show our faces again in Dawson. | |
| Bad Girl 76: He’s done his dirty work and is probably laughing a whole string of ha-ha’s. | |
| Gangster Girl 8: He put the hah-hah on his every pledge and promise and obligation, figuring that a man who served a sense of honour was a man who was afraid to disown it. | |
| Tucker’s People (1944) 99: That’s a ha-ha all right. | |
| (con. 1969) Dispatches 35: This guy across from me had his sixteen loaded and it was pointing like ha-ha at my heart. | |
| Cruisers 96: ‘And suppose it doesn’t work and they just keep on with their ha-ha attitude?’. |
2. of a person, an object of derision.
| (con. 1967) Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 48: The bigmouth tells how I screwed up and soon I’m the newest ha-ha on the hill. |
In compounds
(US) in lit. or fig. use, a derisive laugh, gesture or comment, usu. in phr. give someone the merry ha-ha .
| Salt Lake Herald (UT) 25 July 8/1: After she was released Lizzie gave her friend the merry ha-ha and refused [him]. | |
| Guthrie Dly Leader (OK) 25 Sept. 4/1: The pupils enjoyed the sport and gave the two professors the ‘merry ha-ha’. | |
| Indianapolis Jrnl 15 Dec. 10/3: Captain Tilley [...] sent for the Samoan massage rubbers. [...] The lummy-lummy was limbering up the captain’s stiff joints and giving the merry ha-ha to the rheumatism. | |
| St Paul Globe (MN) 7 Aug. 27/2: I say dey’s goin’ to be trouble. Dis yere merry ha-ha is de straight bluff. It won’t go wid his nibs, nit. | |
| Florida Star (Titusville, FL) 24 July 6/3: Both she and Mrs Leavitt gave their congratulator the ‘merry ha-ha’ and he glided away through the cloud. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 4 Feb. 32/1: Bathing suits with bustle effects in the rear aren’t going to be popular at Chicago beaches [...] ‘Merry ha-has’ [...] greeted a girl who wore one at the live parade of fashions [and] she fled the sdtage in embrarassment. | |
| Sth bend News-Times (IN) 25 July 11/5: [pic. caption] The Razz-Berry! Elbows akimbo. Head thrown back. Mouth opened wide. And there’s Suzanne [Lenglen] giving American rooters the merry ha-ha [...] after her defeat [...] at Wimbledon. |
In phrases
(US) to laugh at, to ridicule and take advantage of.
| Artie (1963) 58: She just gave him the ha-ha. | |
| Chimmie Fadden and Mr Paul 6: We want no ten-up-and-eight-to-play lads; no two-to-de green boys giving us de merry ‘ha-ha,’ and parting us from our silverware. | |
| ‘The Fable of the Never-to-be Benefactor’ in True Bills 131: He decided to follow the prevailing Fashion and spend his Money before he died, thereby giving the Ha- Ha to the Legal Profession. | |
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 205: Giving the elbows from the Central Office the ha-ha the last time he turned a trick! | |
| Shorty McCabe 263: The Sarge give me the ha-ha and scratches our names off the book. | |
| God’s Man 190: He got stuck on Kitty Conroy once and she took his dough and give him the ha-ha. | |
| ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 204: They took him for a tenderfoot out west and everywhere they gave him the ha! ha! | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Over the Top 183: The boys in the battalion gave us the ‘Ha! Ha!’ They weren’t in on our little frame-up. | |
| ‘Too Many Have Lived’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 316: We all give him the ha-ha, and he finally admits he’s thinking of seeing the gent. | |
| ‘Stag Party’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 113: Lasker’d have given McFee the haw-haw for his tag-in-the-dark yarn. | |
| ‘Too Much Pep’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 640: Even take to giving Ignaz’s collectors the old ha-ha. | |
| ‘The Frightening Frammis’ in Fireworks (1988) 103: The supposed suckers were giving him the merry ha-ha. | |
| Fowlers End (2001) 96: Give them the big ha-ha and turn away. | |
| Flesh Peddlers (1964) 237: You think any network or production unit will use our clients for long when they can give us the ha-ha because we had to give up the golden goose? |