last laugh
21
3.5
- idiom
- Informal
:
triunfo final
- He doubted her abilities, but in the end, she got the last laugh by winning the competition.
- get the last laugh
I'm here to tell you that man does not get the last laugh.
- I'm here to tell you that man does not get the last laugh.
- But Brian tells his father, I'm going to have the last laugh.
- Trust me, you'll be the one to get the last laugh.
- But those are like your most, your most viral moments is is because it's it's always you walking away with the last laugh.
- It does have the last laugh in that they don't really know what they're doing, and they're not going to remain within the grand stream of humanity.
Examples
-
Looks like it's I who will have the last laugh!
-
Well, I think in the end I had the last laugh, you see.
-
But in a way they they kind of got the last laugh because we're still talking about them today.
-
So, I guess we get the last laugh.
-
But I got the last laugh.
-
That dude always has to have the last laugh.
-
Well, it is now about 13 years later, and I get the last laugh.
Blog text (11) -
Well, I had the last laugh.
Fiction book (2000) -
Instead, the Browns had the last laugh as they defeated the Bengals in Cincinnati.
Blog text (9) -
Virginia Tech got the last laugh, however, as it beat Boston College 30-16 in the A.C.C. championship game.
Blog text (24)
Antonyms
223
1.7
A feeling of sadness or being let down when something you wanted does not happen
How Triumphant
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'last' (final) and 'laugh' (amusement) transparently signal a final event involving laughter, but the mapping from 'laugh' to the notion of victory or overturning others' expectations is metaphorical and idiomatic. A B1 learner who knows both words might guess the expression refers to something final and possibly positive, but they would be unlikely to infer the precise sense of 'ultimate triumph after doubt' without prior exposure.
Etymology
Last laugh comes from the picture of someone who is laughed at at first but then laughs at the very end. last means final and laugh is the act of laughing, so the phrase means 'final success' when someone wins after others doubted them.