Synonyms for ridicule

noun

verb

ridicule implies making fun of someone or something but does not necessarily connote malice or hostility he ridiculed her attempts to speak Greek; deride suggests scorn or malicious contempt in ridiculing to deride another's beliefs; mock implies contemptuous ridiculing, esp. by caricaturing another's peculiarities it is cruel to mock his lisp; taunt implies insulting ridicule and often an attempt to provoke, esp. by jeering and repeatedly calling attention to some humiliating fact they taunted him about his failure