hy·e·na

/haıˈiːnə/ noun, pl -nas [count]

: a large animal of Asia and Africa that eats the flesh of dead animals

a pack of hyenas

◇ The call of the hyena sounds like very loud laughter, and the hyena is sometimes referred to as a laughing hyena. A person who is laughing in a loud or foolish way is sometimes described as laughing like a hyena.