laugh up one's sleeve



laugh up one's sleeve

Rejoice or exult secretly, hide one's amusement, as in When she tripped over her bridal train, her sister couldn't help laughing up her sleeve. This expression replaced the earlier laugh in one's sleeve, used by Richard Sheridan in The Rivals (1775): "'Tis false, sir, I know you are laughing in your sleeve." The expression, which alludes to hiding one's laughter in big loose sleeves, was already a proverb in the mid-1500s.
See also: laugh, sleeve, up

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
AdÉLaÏDea-de-la-EEDFrench
Dewi (1)-Welsh
KendrickKEN-drikEnglish
Glendower-Welsh
DanÍEl-Icelandic
Hosni-Arabic