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deadpan

[ded-pan]
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adjective
  1. marked by or accomplished with a careful pretense of seriousness or calm detachment; impassive or expressionless: deadpan humor.
  2. displaying no emotional or personal involvement: a deadpan style.
adverb
  1. in a deadpan manner: He spoke his lines utterly deadpan.
verb (used with or without object), dead·panned, dead·pan·ning.
  1. to behave or perform in a deadpan manner.
noun Also dead pan.
  1. a face showing no expression.
  2. a style of comedy that relies on the comedian's maintaining such a face.

Origin of deadpan

An Americanism dating back to 1925–30; dead + pan1
Related formsdead panner, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for deadpan

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Suzanne looked closely at him—he was so deadpan, it was hard to tell what was on his mind.

    Makers

    Cory Doctorow

  • She continued to stare, deadpan and blank-eyed, with no answering flicker of a smile.

    The Stars, My Brothers

    Edmond Hamilton

British Dictionary definitions for deadpan

deadpan

adjective, adverb
  1. with a deliberately emotionless face or mannerdeadpan humour
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for deadpan

1928, from dead (adj.) + pan (n.) in slang sense of "face."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper