1825–35; imitative; see ha-ha 1
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But their neighbors, the Bailey family, have spent the cold-war years lining their nests and crying haw-haw at C.D., except for daughter Lenore, who is devoted both to Chuck Conner and radiochemistry.
From Time Magazine Archive
It did not put Jasper Jay in any better humor to hear Mr. Crow's hoarse haw-haw echoing across the valley.
From The Tale of Jasper Jay Tuck-Me-In Tales by Bailey, Arthur Scott
I saw 'em nudgin' each other and stretchin' their necks, and they seems to indulge in a lively debate, which ends in a general haw-haw.
From Torchy and Vee by Ford, Sewell
It is absurd, then, in a society whose interchange of thought is expressed in monosyllables, and a certain haw-haw dreariness pervades all intercourse, to say that people are above Whist.
From Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men And Women And Other Things In General by Lever, Charles James
About ten minutes afterwards Mr Tommy Dott made his appearance; he extended his hand to me, saying, in a haw-haw way, “Keene, my dear fellow, I’m glad to see you.”
From Percival Keene by Marryat, Frederick
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
