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
And old Mr. Crow, who was noted for his rudeness, even burst out with a hoarse haw-haw.
From The Tale of Ferdinand Frog by Smith, Harry L.
The Dook looked surprised, but he begun to haw-haw, and he slapped me on the back and said, ‘Good joke, ol’ chap, good joke!’
From Philo Gubb, Correspondence-School Detective by Irvin, Rea
These were also outside the haw-haw, having crossed it by another causeway at back.
From No Quarter! by Reid, Mayne
Then someone broke out into what was evidently a forced laugh, a long-drawn, girding, mirthless haw-haw, the laboured insult of which stung Creed into a certain resentment of demeanour.
From Judith of the Cumberlands by MacGowan, Alice
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.
