A laughingstock is a person who has become the target of widespread mockery or ridicule. When someone becomes a laughingstock, others laugh at them rather than with them, often because of a mistake, failure, or foolish behavior that many people witnessed or heard about.

A laughingstock is like common property for jokes: everyone feels free to make fun of them.

Imagine a student who brags loudly about being the fastest runner in school, then trips and falls during the race. If everyone keeps bringing it up and laughing about it weeks later, that student has become a laughingstock. Or picture a rival team that talked trash before a big game, then lost 42-0. They might become the laughingstock of the league.

The word carries a harsh feeling. Being laughed at once or twice is just embarrassment, but being a laughingstock means the mockery has spread and stuck. It's the difference between one person giggling at your mistake and your mistake becoming the joke everyone tells.