Dead wid laugh

phrase DEAD wid LAUGH dɛd wɪd laːf

Also spelled dead with laugh, ded wid laff

To be dying of laughter — to laugh so hard and so helplessly that it feels as if it could kill you. It is the everyday way of saying something is uproariously, side-splittingly funny: 'mi dead wid laugh' means I couldn't stop laughing. The vivid image of being killed by mirth is typical of the strong, bodily way Patois expresses feeling, and it is said of a joke, a piece of gossip, or a comical mishap that leaves everyone weak with laughter.

  • Di joke did suh funny mi dead wid laugh.

    The joke was so funny I was dying of laughter.

  • Wen him fall dung, everybody dead wid laugh.

    When he fell down, everyone was in stitches.

  • Mi belly hurt, mi a dead wid laugh.

    My belly hurts, I'm dying laughing.

A hyperbole: laughter so intense it is spoken of as 'dying' from it — 'dead' used as an intensifier, as in much Jamaican speech ('dead fi hungry', 'dead wid sleep').

A common hyperbolic expression for laughing very hard. 'Dead wid [X]' is a general intensifier pattern.