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Glite Dictionary
to laugh away

to laugh away

1 4.6
To make a problem seem unimportant by joking about it
  • phrasal verb
  • /læf əˈweɪ/
translation icon : restar importancia
  • In tough times, it's helpful to laugh away the obstacles and keep a positive attitude.

Examples

  • They faced many challenges, but they always managed to laugh away their worries and have a good time.

  • We danced and laughed away all the craziness that was this morning.

    Blog text (26)

  • While he was gone, James told Saturn a funny story about Grimly's inept courting of Saturn's mother, and the two men laughed away the tension from the preceding subject.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • The same goes for the LHC, where you have temperatures that are 100,000 times hotter than the heart of the Sun, and a frequency and density level that is 1,000,000,000 times higher than cosmic ray collisions in nature. Everybody with some sense knows that this is a tricky experiment, but all safety arguments are laughed away.

    Blog text (10)

  • Despite the significant setbacks, she chose to laugh away the difficulties instead of letting them stress her out.

Synonyms

to laugh it off
vsto laugh away
  • Informal
20 4.2

To make a joke about something embarrassing to show it is not important

is more about treating problems as unimportant rather than faking amusement
to laugh off
vsto laugh away
  • Informal
3 4.2

Treat a problem or criticism as not important by joking about it

focuses on treating difficulties as unimportant rather than just pretending amusement

Antonyms

to worry
∞ 1.0

To feel nervous or afraid about possible problems

to stress
286 2.7

To feel pressure and worry because of difficult situations

How Dismissive

to ignore
∞ 1.0
to dismiss
332 3.0
to laugh away
1 4.6
to brush off
  • Informal
22 3.9
to play down
16 4.3

Surface Forms

laugh away infinitive
laughing away present participle
laughs away third person singular
laughed away past
laughed away past participle

Morphology

laugh + away

The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'laugh' (to show amusement) with 'away' (to make something disappear or be removed): together they convey making a problem seem to go away by laughing. This verb+particle composition is a common and regular English pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would very likely infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

The expression laugh away comes from the image of someone using laugh to push a worry away. So it means to make a problem seem 'not important' by joking or laughing.