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make a laughingstock of
Idioms and Phrases
Lay open to ridicule, as in They made a laughingstock of the chairman by inviting him to the wrong meeting-place , or She felt she was making a laughingstock of herself, always wearing the wrong clothes for the occasion . The noun laughingstock replaced the earlier mockingstock and sportingstock , now obsolete. The idiom was first recorded in 1667.Example Sentences
He undoubtedly worked with von Papen and Boy-Ed during the early years of the warâyears in which this precious trio, either with or without the knowledge of Count von Bernstorff, sought by every means to cripple American shipping, violate American neutrality, and make a laughingstock of American diplomatic methods.
If he could get those stones, heâd not only have a handsome profit, heâd make a laughingstock of meâwhat he has sworn to do.
"Now, Rose, if you will just coach him a little in his small talk, he won't make a laughingstock of himself as he did the other night," added Steve.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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