1680 R. L'Estrange Narr. of Plot 19 And This they call a Ridiculing of the Plot; and making Sport with Sentences of Parliament, and Judicial Proceedings.

1707 E. Lhuyd Archæologia Britannica Pref. sig. b2 The Generality of Peple are rather disposed to a Ridiculing than a Favourable Reception of any Thing in that kind.

1750 F. Hutcheson Refl. Laughter sig. A3 Aristotle, in his Art of Poetry, has very justly explained the nature of one species of Laughter, viz. the Ridiculing of Persons.

1824 Edinb. Ann. Reg. 1822 15 79/2 There is a malicious ridiculing of his person, which..is evidently calculated to lower his estimation in society.

1887 Athenæum 19 Feb. 253/1 There is a good deal of very excellent ridiculing of the early days of Royat.

1915 Jrnl. Amer. Inst. Criminal Law & Criminol. 5 301 The ridiculing of the policeman on the stage and in moving pictures deserves to be condemned by all good citizens.

1966 P. Young Ernest Hemingway (rev. ed.) iii. 80 F. Scott Fitzgerald put him up to this ridiculing of Sherwood Anderson, or so the story goes.

2004 M. Marcussen in K. Armingeon & M. Beyeler OECD & European Welfare States i. 14 Shaming, ridiculing and exclusion are all part of the arsenal of moral pressure.

1684 W. Mountagu Let. 26 Feb. in G. Eland Shardeloes Papers (1947) vii. 87 Hee went away in a greate rage & tolde my mother he had a rediculing letter from an unknowne hand.

1687 C. Ellis Let. to Friend 14 I might here talk with him in his own ridiculing Language.

1701 J. Norris Ess. Ideal World I. vi. 305 Those whom he exposes under the ridiculing title of meditative men.

1779 F. Burney Early Jrnls. & Lett. (1994) III. 410 He is a sarcastic, observing, & ridiculing man.

1821 Economist 1 245 That ridiculing spirit with which you viewed the young children of the poorest and most unsettled people in the metropolis.

1873 Mrs. H. Wood Master of Greylands ix. 76/2 ‘The Friar's Keep!’ repeated the landlady, in the most ridiculing tone she could use. ‘What excuse will you invent next?’

1915 D. H. Lawrence Rainbow vi. 148 She burst into a ‘Pouf’ of ridiculing laughter.

1989 K. Gibbons Virtuous Woman (1990) iii. 18 You know, it shows a bad weakness in a woman when all she can do is find fault, be ridiculing.

2001 H. M. Lefcourt Humor xi. 159 Disparaging humor may therefore result in social isolation of the comic even if the expression of dislike for his ridiculing behavior is not made obvious.