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laughingstock

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laughing stock

A person who is the subject of mockery after a blunder. If I mess up this speech, I'll be the laughing stock of the school!

See also: laugh, stock

laughingstock

someone or something that is the target of ridicule. After he passed out at the president's dinner, he became the laughingstock of all his colleagues.

make a laughingstock of (oneself or something)

 and make (oneself or something) a laughingstock

to make oneself a source of ridicule or laughter; to do something that invites ridicule. Laura made herself a laughingstock by arriving at the fast-food restaurant in full evening dress. The board of directors made the company a laughingstock by hiring an ex-convict as president.

See also: laughingstock, make, of

make a laughingstock of

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.

See also: laughingstock, make, of