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Humor   /hjˈumər/   Listen
noun
Humor  n.  (Written also humour)  
1.
Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc. Note: The ancient physicians believed that there were four humors (the blood, phlegm, yellow bile or choler, and black bile or melancholy), on the relative proportion of which the temperament and health depended.
2.
(Med.) A vitiated or morbid animal fluid, such as often causes an eruption on the skin. "A body full of humors."
3.
State of mind, whether habitual or temporary (as formerly supposed to depend on the character or combination of the fluids of the body); disposition; temper; mood; as, good humor; ill humor. "Examine how your humor is inclined, And which the ruling passion of your mind." "A prince of a pleasant humor." "I like not the humor of lying."
4.
pl. Changing and uncertain states of mind; caprices; freaks; vagaries; whims. "Is my friend all perfection, all virtue and discretion? Has he not humors to be endured?"
5.
That quality of the imagination which gives to ideas an incongruous or fantastic turn, and tends to excite laughter or mirth by ludicrous images or representations; a playful fancy; facetiousness. "For thy sake I admit That a Scot may have humor, I'd almost said wit." "A great deal of excellent humor was expended on the perplexities of mine host."
Aqueous humor, Crystalline humor or Crystalline lens, Vitreous humor. (Anat.) See Eye.
Out of humor, dissatisfied; displeased; in an unpleasant frame of mind.
Synonyms: Wit; satire; pleasantry; temper; disposition; mood; frame; whim; fancy; caprice. See Wit.



verb
Humor  v. t.  (past & past part. humored; pres. part. humoring)  
1.
To comply with the humor of; to adjust matters so as suit the peculiarities, caprices, or exigencies of; to adapt one's self to; to indulge by skillful adaptation; as, to humor the mind. "It is my part to invent, and the musician's to humor that invention."
2.
To help on by indulgence or compliant treatment; to soothe; to gratify; to please. "You humor me when I am sick."
Synonyms: To gratify; to indulge. See Gratify.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Humor" Quotes from Famous Books



... hunt and seemed proud that he was to have elephants in the American Museum group to be done by Mr. Akeley. Heller was stuffing some birds and mice and was as slouchy, deliberate and as full of dry humor as any one I've ever seen. He is a character of a most likable type. Tarlton, small, with short cropped red hair—a sort of Scotchman in appearance—is also a remarkable type. He has a quiet voice, never raised in tone, and talks like the university man that he is. He is a famous ...
— In Africa - Hunting Adventures in the Big Game Country • John T. McCutcheon

... feast was over and done, Sir Tristram said: "Lady, will you not of your courtesy tell me why you wear the weeds of sorrow in which you are clad? This I ask, not from idle humor, but because, as I said before, I may haply be able to aid you in whatever trouble it is under ...
— The Story of the Champions of the Round Table • Howard Pyle

... cup in grandiose manner to Paul, and Paul, meeting his humor, accepted it in like fashion. He had not tasted wine often in his life and he found it a strong fluid, but, in this crisis, it strengthened him and put a new sparkle in ...
— The Free Rangers - A Story of the Early Days Along the Mississippi • Joseph A. Altsheler

... Lord. More Iewels yet? There is no crossing him in's humor, Else I should tell him well, yfaith I should; When all's spent, hee'ld be crost then, and he could: 'Tis pitty Bounty had not eyes behinde, That man might ne're be wretched for ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... buffoon because it heard only the echo of the hoarse laughter after his stories. They found when he spoke in Cooper Union that he had a mind that would have sat unembarrassed and luminous in the company of the men of the age of Pericles. But he had a sense of humor that, had he been there, would have saved Socrates from the hyssop. Mr. Bryce says, that all the world knows the Americans to be a humorous people. [Footnote: Bryce, "American Commonwealth," 2:286.] "They are," he has said, "as conspicuously the purveyors of humor to the nineteenth century as ...
— The French in the Heart of America • John Finley


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