If someone cackles, they laugh in a loud unpleasant way, often at something bad that happens to someone else. The old lady cackled, pleased to have produced so dramatic a reaction Cackle is also a noun. He let out a brief cackle
a loud laugh suggestive of a hen's cackle the sound made by a hen after laying an egg emit a loud, unpleasant kind of laughing squawk shrilly and loudly, characteristic of hens talk or utter in a cackling manner; "The women cackled when they saw the movie star step out of the limousine