Past tense of chortle; laughed in a joyful, chuckling way.
Regular past tense formation from 'chortle' (to laugh joyfully) using the standard English '-ed' suffix. This maintains the verb form that Carroll's invented word naturally took in English grammar.
When you read that a character 'chortled' in a story, you instantly know they're expressing genuine, unselfconscious joy—the word itself sounds gleeful, which is a rare quality in English where the pronunciation actually matches the meaning perfectly.
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