amusing

By surface analysis, amuse +‎ -ing.

• IPA^(key): /əˈmjuːzɪŋ/

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amusing

1. present participle and gerund of amuse

amusing (comparative more amusing or amusinger, superlative most amusing or amusingest)

1. Entertaining.

   The film has some amusing moments, but it is unlikely to make you laugh out loud.

   • 1856 March 10, William Makepeace Thackeray, “To Mrs. Elliot”, in Gordon N[orton] Ray, editor, The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray, volume III (1852–1856), London: Oxford University Press, published 1946, →OCLC, page 582:

     We don’t get amusinger as we get older, we grow prosy and repeat ourselves and talk about our complaints and selfish grievances: but our old friends bear up with our dullness for old times’ sake; […]

   • 1861 January 12, Fitz-Hugh Ludlow, “The Primpenny Family. Chapter II.”, in Vanity Fair, volume III, New York, N.Y.: Louis H. Stephens, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 13–14:

     Never borrow money for my amusements. Now paying Mrs. McCrowder just at this present period would be an amusement. In fact when we consider the quality of the article she gives, I think that paying her on the nail would be about the amusingest little thing I could do.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Off the Record”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 64:

     ‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’

   • 2012 December 21, George Monbiot, “Your gift at Christmas will soon be junk”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 188, number 2, page 24:

     They seem amusing on the first day of Christmas, daft on the second, embarrassing on the third. By the twelfth they're in landfill. For 30 seconds of dubious entertainment, or a hedonic stimulus that lasts no longer than a nicotine hit, we commission the use of materials whose impacts will ramify for generations.

2. Funny, hilarious.
   • 1952 December, 'Mercury', “Modern French Locomotive Performance”, in Railway Magazine, pages 808-809:

     An amusing incident on the first of these journeys was the checking by signal of the flyer about 3 miles out of Paris, with the result that it was overhauled by the 6.25 p.m. semi-fast from Paris to Montargis, to the unconcealed delight of passengers in the latter.

   • 2003, Phil Hogan, chapter 1, in The Freedom Thing, London: Abacus, →ISBN, page 20:

     hey’d had to call it something – i.e. something that differentiated this occasion from others where they might just go for a pint or a curry. So beer & sausages had somehow happily invented itself, […] The best thing, of course, the amusingest thing, was that no one ever brought beer and Jas had only actually done sausages once.

• See also Thesaurus:funny
• See also Thesaurus:witty

• unamusing

• Mungias