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
But before accepting the hula ki'i as a product indigenous to Hawaii, I asked myself: Might not this be a performance in imitation of the Punch-and-Judy show familiar to Europe and America?
From Unwritten Literature of Hawaii The Sacred Songs of the Hula by Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
She was watching the visitor as if she were a passing Punch-and-Judy show come in to play for a moment for her entertainment.
From The Witness by Lutz, Grace Livingston Hill
Her eager little face, lighted by sleep-dazzled blue eyes, popped out with the surprising suddenness of the manikins in a Punch-and-Judy show.
From Greyfriars Bobby by Atkinson, Eleanor Stackhouse
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.
