to laugh in one's sleeve
- idiom
- Offensive
:
burlarse a escondidas de
- Though he appeared serious, he was laughing in his sleeve at their confusion.
Examples
-
She laughed in her sleeve when she realized her plan had worked perfectly.
-
He laughed in his sleeve, pretending sympathy while secretly mocking the mistake.
-
He laughs in his sleeve.
-
She laughed in her sleeve.
-
He laughed in his sleeve, pretending sympathy while secretly mocking her mistake.
-
She laughed in her sleeve when she saw the look on his face after the prank.
-
Though he maintained a serious expression, he was laughing in his sleeve at the ridiculousness of the situation.
Synonyms
456
2.0
To make fun of someone in a mean way to show they are silly
307
2.3
Laugh at someone or say things that make them feel embarrassed
237
2.0
To laugh quietly to yourself when something is slightly funny
27
4.0
To laugh quietly in a partly hidden way at something rude
25
3.9
To make jokes about someone to make them look silly
23
3.4
To make jokes about someone, sometimes to be playful and sometimes to be unkind
4
6.8
To laugh quietly to make fun of someone
3
1.9
To make a quiet sound because something is funny so you do not disturb others
2
7.5
To laugh at someone and say unkind things about them
To secretly find someone else's mistake funny without showing it
To stop yourself from making a sound when something is funny
How Open
1
1.0
2
1.0
237
2.0
3
7.4
- Offensive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The image of laughing 'in one's sleeve' gives a partial clue (laugh + in + sleeve → hidden/covered laughter), so a learner could infer secrecy from the constituents, but the precise idiomatic sense of quietly mocking or being secretly amused is not fully predictable from the literal words and relies on cultural/phraseological knowledge. Because the meaning is metaphorical and the construction is not a transparent compositional pattern across languages, it should be rated as partially but not fully transparent.
Etymology
The idiom laugh in one's sleeve comes from the old habit of hiding a laugh by putting your hand into your sleeve so others could not see you smile. So, it now means 'to be secretly amused or to mock someone without showing it openly'.