giggle
v.to laugh in a quiet, silly way because you are nervous, embarrassed, or think something is funny.
v.to laugh in a light, silly, or repetitive manner, often as a result of amusement, nervousness, or embarrassment.
“The children giggle whenever the teacher makes a funny face.”
“The students began to giggle at the back of the classroom when they saw the typo on the whiteboard.”
“It is difficult to maintain a serious expression when your best friend starts to giggle uncontrollably during a formal ceremony.”
The verb is intransitive and does not take a direct object; it often pairs with the preposition 'at'.
Giggle is an intransitive verb and requires a preposition like 'at' to connect to the cause of the laughter.
Early 16th century, probably of imitative origin. Or, perhaps a frequentative based on dialectal English gig (“to creak”), from Middle English gigen (“to make a creaking sound”) + -le; or perhaps of Dutch or Low German origin: compare Saterland Frisian güüchelje (“to giggle”), West Frisian giechelje (“to giggle”), Dutch giechelen (“to giggle”), German Low German giecheln (“to giggle”), dialectal German giggln, gigglen (“to giggle”), German gickeln (“to giggle”). All of these words are likely onomatopoeic as well. Also compare Alemannic German Guege (“fiddle”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.