Punch-and-Judy show
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of Punch-and-Judy show
First recorded in 1875–80
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But isn’t there also a side effect, an off-label one if you will, of making the audience giggle along at this postmodern Punch-and-Judy show?
From Slate • Jan. 6, 2016
Pussycat is as old as the Punch-and-Judy show and as new as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and the evening is filled with good, healthy, vulgar, neurotic laughter.
From Time Magazine Archive
Altogether the scene was more like a Punch-and-Judy show, than any part of the serious business of life.
From From Egypt to Japan by Field, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
I give a Punch-and-Judy show every Saturday, and I make from five to ten cents each time.
From Harper's Young People, April 27, 1880 An Illustrated Weekly by Various
The road was thick with people and lined with sweet-standings; and by the near end of the bridge a Punch-and-Judy show had just closed a performance.
From The Delectable Duchy by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir
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.
