punch line
- the climactic phrase or sentence in a joke, speech, advertisement, or humorous story that produces the desired effect.
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Origin of punch line
An Americanism dating back to 1920–25
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for punch line
Contemporary Examples
Watch them make off like punch-line bandits during this “Joke Off” at a mini-SNL reunion last year.
Instead, Kennedy took the punch-line for himself and applied the loud laughs he earned as an inoculation against a poisonous idea.
Historical Examples
He began to hold back slyly, like a comedian building up the tension before a punch-line.
The Fourth RGeorge Oliver Smith
punch line
- the culminating part of a joke, funny story, etc, that gives it its humorous or dramatic point
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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