to tickle someone's funny bone
- idiom
- Informal
:
hacer reír a alguien
- Her witty remarks during the meeting tickled my funny bone and kept the atmosphere light.
Examples
-
And I must admit that it did tickle my funny bone immediately, as it is clearly satire.
Blog text (27) -
That tickled my funny bone.
-
Tickles my funny bone in all the right places.
Blog text (27) -
Mark Southard, APSA, says, "The Crossing Sign just tickled my funny bone."
Academic text (2006) -
The comedian's joke really tickled my funny bone and made everyone laugh.
-
Watching that movie always tickles my funny bone with its clever humor.
Synonyms
252
1.0
Cause someone to feel amused by saying or doing something funny
94
1.0
To touch someone lightly so they feel a tingle or laugh
1
6.3
Feel very happy and amused by something someone does
To make someone laugh a lot
Make someone laugh a lot so they cannot stop
Make someone feel very happy and amused
To be very funny in a silly way that makes people laugh
Antonyms
How Amusing
Surface Forms
Morphology
tickle + someone's + funny + bone
The components 'tickle' (to cause amusement) and 'funny' (humorous) strongly suggest the overall meaning of causing laughter, so a learner who knows those words can often infer the sense. However, 'funny bone' is a conventionalized metaphor (not a literal anatomical target for amusement) and the expression is an idiomatic extension of physical tickling to emotional amusement, so the mapping is not fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The idiom tickle someone's funny bone may come from the strange tingling you feel when you hit the inside of your elbow, the so-called funny bone, which feels like a small tickle. So, if something 'tickles your funny bone', it means it makes you 'laugh' or feel 'amused'.