At each point, the audience was eager to punctuate his rhetoric with cheers and applause.
These manic episodes, however, only punctuate a life that is most fundamentally pathetic.
He even went so far as to punctuate the scoop with an exclamation point!
Hattie began rocking, in a rapid staccato, to punctuate her speech.
In such cases the compositor should punctuate as he goes along.
There we punctuate the full stop to our inquiries; we have the secret.
He banged the table with his riding-crop to punctuate the emphasis.
When a writer does not know how to punctuate his own language at any point he uses a dash.
Noiselessly, one by one, the stars came out to punctuate the heavens.
He thought: "He must punctuate his every phrase with that hideous laughter."
1630s, "to point out," from Medieval Latin punctuatus, past participle of punctuare, from Latin punctus (see point (n.)). Meaning in reference to text, "to have pauses or stops indicated," is from 1818, probably a back-formation from punctuation. Hence, "interrupted at intervals" (1833). Related: Punctuated; punctuating.
