1. Home
2. Idioms
3. die laughing

die laughing

---

---

die laughing

 

1. Lit. to meet one's death laughing-in good spirits, revenge, or irony. Sally is such an optimist that she'll probably die laughing. Bob tried to poison his rich aunt, who then died laughing because she had taken Bob out of her will.

2. Fig. to laugh very long and hard. The joke was so funny that I almost died laughing. The play was meant to be funny, but the audience didn't exactly die laughing.

See also: die, laugh

die laughing

Experience extreme amusement, as in When his pants fell down, I thought I'd die laughing. This hyperbolic expression was used by Shakespeare in The Taming of the Shrew (3:2): "Went they not quickly, I should die with laughing." Also see split one's sides.

See also: die, laugh