( BrE ) ( NAmE hu·mor ) / ˈhjuːmə(r); NAmE / noun , verb
■ noun
1.
[ U ] the quality in sth that makes it funny or amusing; the ability to laugh at things that are amusing :
a story full of gentle humour
She ignored his feeble attempt at humour.
They failed to see the humour of the situation.
I can't stand people with no sense of humour .
She smiled with a rare flash of humour.
She has her very own brand of humour.
The film is only funny if you appreciate French humour (= things that cause French people to laugh) .
2.
[ C , U ] ( formal ) the state of your feelings or mind at a particular time :
to be in the best of humours
The meeting dissolved in ill humour .
to be out of humour (= in a bad mood)
—see also good humour , good-humoured , ill-humoured
3.
[ C ] ( old use ) one of the four liquids that were thought in the past to be in a person's body and to influence health and character
■ verb
[ vn ] to agree with sb's wishes, even if they seem unreasonable, in order to keep the person happy :
She thought it best to humour him rather than get into an argument.
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WORD ORIGIN
Middle English : via Old French from Latin humor moisture, from humere be moist. The original sense was bodily fluid (surviving in aqueous humour and vitreous humour ); it was used specifically for any of the cardinal humours (sense 3), which led to the sense mental disposition (thought to be caused by the relative proportions of the humours). This led, in the 16th cent., to the senses mood (sense 2) and whim , hence to humour someone to indulge a person's whim . Sense 1 dates from the late 16th cent.