grins and giggles

English

Alternative forms

Noun

grins and giggles pl (plural only)

  1. (informal) Synonym of kicks-and-giggles.
    • 1913, Hersilia A. Mitchell Keays, Mrs. Brand, A Novel, page 85:
      When he had dismissed those odious women with their grins and giggles, he stepped into the seat in front, and, leaning over it, held out his hand with a manner from which all the warmth and spontaneity had departed, saying, "Ah, good evening, Mrs. Brand. How is my boy to-day?"
    • 1990, Andrew W. Mitchell, The Fragile South Pacific, An Ecological Odyssey, page 51:
      Blue pillars supported wide tin roofs over verandas laden with smiling children who met my waves with grins and giggles.
    • 1995, Rupert D. V. Glasgow, Madness, Masks, and Laughter, An Essay on Comedy, page 14:
      While functional grins and giggles belong to the "intentional" communicative weaponry of a sovereign subject, the comic situation may on occasion produce a characteristic power-reversal whereby laughter assumes mastery over its subject, reducing him or her to a gibbering wretch rolling about on the floor and clutching his or her sides.
    • 1998, Barbara Delinsky, Coast Road, page 207:
      He had thought that the ongoing grins and giggles were simply because he was home.
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