Definition of "haha"

First he regarded the strangers, then his own band, and his mouth was expanded to a still wider grin; his eyes opened to their fullest extent, and at last he haha’d as furiously and heartily as the worst of the sailors, which was naturally the signal for an outbreak on the part of the islanders.

1860, Frederick Gerstaecker, translated by Lascelles Wraxall, Frank Wildman’s Adventures on Land and Water, Boston, Mass.: Crosby, Nichols, and Company, […], page 124

Emett yelled for him, and Jones and Jim “hahaed!”

1908, Field and Stream, page 832

She haha’d like she ate diamonds for breakfast and flossed with spun gold.

2014, Rachel Hauck, A March Bride: A Year of Weddings Novella, Zondervan

Then she shrugged and haha-ed again and mumbled, “Poor souls,” because she thought she was safe and none of us could comprehend a single word she said.

2017, Deborah E. Kennedy, Tornado Weather, Flatiron Books, page 17

NatThrowinAwayMyShot: Haha, what?! GoChloGo: Y r u haha-ing?

2021, Ali Stroker, Stacy Davidowitz, The Chance to Fly, Amulet Books

The Ha Ha But the capital stroke, the leading step to all that, has followed, was (I believe the first thought was Bridgman's) the destruction of walls for boundaries, and the invention of fosses - an attempt then deemed so astonishing, that the common people called them Ha! Ha's! to express their surprise at finding a sudden and unperceived check to their walk. One of the first gardens planted in this simple though still formal style was my father's at Houghton. It was laid out by Mr. Eyre, an imitator of Bridgman. It contains three-and-twenty acres, then reckoned a considerable portion.

1785, Horace Walpole, On Modern Gardening

Haha! or Fossee, are Terms of the same Signification, tho' the First is a new coin'd Word, they mean a Ditch, or Moat to Enclose a Garden, whether the Ditch has Water in it, or not, but the Haha, by the Custom of five or six Years, intimates a dry Ditch, so regulated by Slopes, and so Deep that it is unpassable. It makes a fine open Fence to a Ground.

1731, Richard Bradley, New improvements of planting and gardening, both philosophical and practical, London, page 164

And then that pair went off together, fighting their own little battle on that head, as turtle-doves will sometimes do. They went off, and Bernard was left with Bell standing together over the ha-ha fence which divides the garden at the back of the house from the field.

1862, Anthony Trollope, chapter VIII, in The Small House at Allington

The estate was cleverly landscaped to give an almost park-like view from the house: copses were planted to conceal buildings, hahas dug to replace fences or hedges.

1993, Elizabeth Gundrey, Walter Gundrey, edited by Jacqueline Krendel, Cottages, B and Bs and Country Inns of England and Wales, Fodor’s Travel Guides, page 220