standing joke


Something that is always funny even though it is often repeated. For example, Mary's “Dennis who?” when her husband is mentioned is a standing joke around here. This idiom employs standing in the sense of “established” or “regular,” a usage dating from the mid-1500s.

Words Nearby standing joke

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use standing joke in a sentence

  • There was in fact an "eternal fitness" in horse and man that was not exactly a "standing joke," but a peripatetic one.

    Lincolniana | Andrew Adderup
  • Then they raised a horse laugh, and the cost of that hatchet became a standing joke and a slur on my "business ability."

    Woodcraft and Camping | George Washington Sears (Nessmuk)
  • Grandmother Sanford's pension had come to be a standing joke.

  • His complete ignorance of nautical matters became a standing joke.

    Monk | Julian Corbett
  • The prowess of the British charioteers became a standing joke in Rome against the soldiers of Cæsar.

    Old and New London | Walter Thornbury