The half-joking quip was reported around the world as if it were a call for divine providence.
And, quite frankly, “the women were running out,” he said, half-joking.
“We can blame Carrie Bradshaw for this,” says Shaunaq Arora, half-joking; his sigh tinged with the cloudy breath of his Gauloises.
Detroiters, now erecting a Robocop statue as a half-joking, half-serious morale boost, may want to consider bronzing Mulally next.
I rather like the half-joking way you do your kindest things.
"I do not try to alter yours," I remember he said once, in his half-joking way.
"I'm afraid I look lots of things that I'm not," she sighed, in a voice too gloomy for the half-joking words.
Later, I think, he regretted this, and made some half-joking overtures to have his letters returned.
She had never been indifferent since Frank had uttered his first half-joking word of love.
To make a half-joking request, and find Lance taking it seriously, wasn't in the natural order of things.
1660s, "to make a joke," from Latin iocari "to jest, joke," from iocus (see joke (n.)). Related: Joked; joking.
1660s, joque, "a jest, something done to excite laughter," from Latin iocus "joke, sport, pastime," from PIE root *yek- "to speak" (cf. Breton iez "language," Old High German jehan "to say," German Beichte "confession").
Originally a colloquial or slang word. Meaning "something not to be taken seriously" is 1791. Practical joke "trick played on someone for the sake of a laugh at his expense" is from 1804 (earlier handicraft joke, 1741). Black joke is old slang for "smutty song" (1730s), from use of that phrase in the refrain of a then-popular song as a euphemism for "the monosyllable."
1660s, "to make a joke," from Latin iocari "to jest, joke," from iocus (see joke (n.)). Related: Joked; joking.
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