fakey laugh
- noun
- Informal
:
risa falsa
- She gave a fakey laugh when her boss made a terrible joke.
Examples
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Everyone could tell by his fakey laugh that he wasn't amused.
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The interviewer's fakey laugh made the conversation feel awkward.
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Her fakey laugh made everyone uncomfortable.
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I could tell his fakey laugh was forced.
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Everyone could tell by his fakey laugh that he wasn't amused.
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She gave a fakey laugh when her boss made a terrible joke.
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The interviewer’s fakey laugh made the conversation feel awkward.
How Sincere
Surface Forms
Morphology
fakey + laugh
The meaning is directly derivable from the constituents: 'fakey' is an informal adjectival form of 'fake' meaning not genuine, and 'laugh' is the sound/act of amusement, so together they denote an insincere laugh. This straightforward adjective+noun composition follows normal English patterns (despite 'fakey' being informal), so a B1 learner who knows the parts will comprehend the expression.
Etymology
The noun fakey laugh comes from the image of a laugh that is not real: fakey (fake) and laugh—like the forced laugh you hear on a TV show or from someone being polite. So it means 'insincere' or 'not genuine'.