Both Uses of
mirth
in
Nine Stories
- In consequence, when the Laughing Man breathed, the hideous, mirthless gap below his nose dilated and contracted like (as I see it) some sort of monstrous vacuole.†
Story 4mirthless = without fun and laughterstandard suffix: The suffix "-less" in mirthless means without and reverses the meaning of mirth. This is the same pattern you see in words like harmless, fearless, and powerless.
- He then looked at me with his exposed eyes, which were full of slowly subsiding mirth and the pride of someone who knows a really good riddle or two.†
Story 6 *
Definition:
fun and laughter