Brewer's: Laugh on the Other Side of Your Mouth

To make a person laugh on the other side of his mouth is to make him cry, or to cause him annoyance. To “laugh on the wrong side of one's face” is to be humiliated, or to lament from annoyance.

“Thou laughest there by-and-by thou wilt laugh on the wrong side of thy face.” —Carlyle: The Diamond Necklace, chap. iii.

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