guffaw
Americannoun
-
guffaws
plural
verb (used without object)
-
guffaws,
present (3rd person singular)
-
guffawed,
past participle, past
-
guffawing
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
guffawsimple
-
guffawssimple
-
have guffawedperfect
-
has guffawedperfect
-
am guffawingprogressive
-
are guffawingprogressive
-
is guffawingprogressive
-
have been guffawingperfect progressive
-
has been guffawingperfect progressive
Past
-
guffawedsimple
-
had guffawedperfect
-
was guffawingprogressive
-
were guffawingprogressive
-
had been guffawingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of guffaw
First recorded in 1710–20; perhaps imitative
Explanation
A guffaw is a belly laugh: a laugh that bubbles up with good feeling and plenty of volume. At the end of a stressful day of work, it’s good to have some guffaws with your friends. Guffaw operates just like the word laugh: you can give a guffaw, or you can guffaw. It comes from the Scottish word gawf, which is onomatopoetic, meaning that it’s spelled the way it sounds. Imagine a big happy Scotsman snorting "gawf, gawf, gawf" at the end of a joke, and you’ll know what a guffaw is.
Vocabulary lists containing guffaw
Instead of "Said": Words for Upbeat Banter
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The Hobbit
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Beowulf: A New Telling
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
You can never quite relax, because you're always just waiting for the raise of the eyebrow, the suppressed guffaw, the uninvited joke, whatever.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2026
But even now, the news will occasionally let you get off a chuckle or guffaw, even if it isn’t always from your better nature.
From Slate ● Oct. 10, 2025
While the typical person observes Harris’ effervescent guffaw, and thinks, “She seems fun!”
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2024
Farther on, standing before “Pay Nothing Until April,” an exceptional 2003 painting that I hadn’t seen before, I let out an involuntary guffaw.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2023
I jerk back, startled, while he and Haymitch guffaw.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
And while much of the movie induces sidesplitting guffaws, Tremaine said that producer and co-creator Spike Jonze was eager to highlight the sensitive beats shared between the cast.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Conductors love to play “Pulcinella” for goofy laughs, exaggerating trombone glissandi and the like, relishing guffaws from the audience.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
But when Amy Madigan’s deliciously wicked villain, Aunt Gladys, finally appeared in her blunt wig with lipstick smeared all over her teeth, even I couldn’t resist offering up some guffaws of my own.
From Salon ● Jan. 6, 2026
They realized that these comments got a rise out of the girls and drew guffaws from the other boys; Amanda saw them looking around the classroom for reactions after saying something particularly shocking.
From Slate ● Dec. 5, 2025
Haymitch guffaws and we all start laughing except Effie, although even she is suppressing a smile.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
Still, I guffawed when Becket popped back into his present-day cell to poke fun at his audience, the Catholic priest: “The last thing the Church wanted was an investigation,” he says with a smirk.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2026
It is no exaggeration to say I guffawed my way through it.
From Salon ● Dec. 26, 2023
At various points, others groaned and guffawed at Mr Gaetz's comments.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2023
I lost track of how many times I guffawed during the first two episodes, which also made me tear up quite a bit.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 17, 2021
She hummed; she gurgled; she babbled; she screeched; she guffawed; she snorted; she yelled.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
As one guffawing TikToker put it, “Tim Burton was so tired of people saying that he don’t be putting Black people in his movies that he said, ‘Here!
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2024
Laughter can be subversive, of course, and one of the great satisfactions of these films is watching so many women laugh — often guffawing, not tittering — through one predicament after another.
From New York Times ● Aug. 19, 2022
Asked by Jost if his parents would be “upset” about his sexuality, Yang’s Oompa Loompa gave the guffawing audience some insight into his hometown of “Loompa Land,” which apparently is “not as progressive.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2021
You can practically hear Prose guffawing over these excerpts; they provide a wonderful excuse for this superb stylist to dress up like a literary tramp.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 6, 2021
Which is saying something—not just because who knew guffawing was an actual thing people did, but because you know Ms. Albright has seen this thing a thousand times already.
From "Leah on the Offbeat" by Becky Albertalli
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
