First recorded in 1930–35
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Boisterous, rowdy, full of custard-pie humor, the program last week was hard on the heels of top-rating quiz show Information Please.
From Time Magazine Archive
They watched beadily as the slim, smiling youth received the first, custard-pie impact of an American welcome.
From Time Magazine Archive
The climax of this primitive business is a custard-pie war in a beatnik beer and poetry parlor.
From Time Magazine Archive
On the other hand, he has also lost the Elizabethan faculty for fairly plastering his "opponent" with a custard-pie onslaught of laborious, invidious obscenities.
From Time Magazine Archive
When he came to the deserts the waiter said: "We have mince-pie, apple-pie, pumpkin-pie, and custard-pie."
From My Memories of Eighty Years by Depew, Chauncey M. (Chauncey Mitchell)
And this episode in the three-part Vice sports series “Out of Bounds” will likely have the effect of a figurative custard pie in the face of the heavily armed and coercive DraftKings-FanDuel-powered juggernaut.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
"I want to demonstrate that I can make serious points by flinging a custard pie around the stage for a couple of hours," the Czech-born Stoppard said in a 1970s interview.
From Barron's ● Nov. 29, 2025
“I filled in those holes through volunteering, through being an actor, through golf, bridge,” he said over a lunch of meatloaf and custard pie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2025
Entries included a kangaroo, ale and Tasmanian pepperberry pie, a spiced miso beef short ribs and sour cherries pie, a Christmas dinner pie and a rhubarb and custard pie.
From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2022
He dodged every rubber band, coconut custard pie, mud clod, and wadded-up sock ball they flung his way.
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
