punchbag

British

/ ˈpʌntʃˌbæɡ /

noun

Also called (US and Canadian): punching bag. a suspended stuffed bag that is punched for exercise, esp boxing training

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

The white-haired veteran then demonstrates the technique with a series of perfectly-delivered powerful blows to a punchbag mounted on the gym wall.

From BBC • Oct. 28, 2025

Up to now, Martin has been a human shield, an easy punchbag, but for all the animosity he drew no Rangers fan thinks that the club's problems began and ended with him.

From BBC • Oct. 5, 2025

Some television news showed looped videos of Thaksin exercising in the grounds of his Dubai mansion late last year, pounding energetically at a punchbag while attempting an occasional high kick.

From Reuters • Aug. 23, 2023

Yet Pollard and her real life peers weren’t just a punchbag for the press.

From The Guardian • Aug. 3, 2017

He also became the preferred punchbag for climate-change cynics in search of a straw man.

From Nature • Jul. 25, 2017

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023