chuckle

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃʌkəl/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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  Rhymes: -ʌkəl

From chuck +‎ -le.

chuckle (plural chuckles)

1. A quiet laugh.

   Synonyms: chortle, giggle, snigger, titter; see also Thesaurus:laugh

chuckle (third-person singular simple present chuckles, present participle chuckling, simple past and past participle chuckled)

1. To laugh quietly or inwardly.
2. (transitive) To communicate through chuckling.

   She chuckled her assent to my offer as she got in the car.

3. (intransitive, archaic) To make the sound of a chicken; to cluck.
4. (transitive, archaic) To call together, or call to follow, as a hen calls her chickens; to cluck.
   • 1690, [John] Dryden, Don Sebastian, King of Portugal: […], London: […] Jo. Hindmarsh, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page number):

     if these Birds are within distance, here's that will chuckle 'em together

5. (transitive, archaic) To fondle; to indulge or pamper.

• (to laugh quietly): see also Thesaurus:laugh
• (to fondle): grope, pet, touch up; see also Thesaurus:fondle
• (to pamper): coddle, posset; see also Thesaurus:pamper

Perhaps from chock (“a log”).

chuckle (comparative more chuckle, superlative most chuckle)

1. (obsolete) Clumsy.

• chucklehead