To make a person laugh on the other side of his mouth is to
make him cry, or to cause him annoyance. To “laugh on the wrong side of
one's face” is to be humiliated, or to lament from annoyance.
“Thou laughest there by-and-by thou wilt laugh on the wrong side of
thy face.” —Carlyle: The Diamond Necklace, chap. iii.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
