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punch

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Punch

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /pʌnt͡ʃ/, /pʌnʃ/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌntʃ

Etymology 1

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From Middle English punchen, partially from Old French ponchonner (“to punch”), from ponchon (“pointed tool”), from Latin punctio, from punctus, perfect passive participle of pungō (“I prick”); and partially from Middle English punchen, a syncopated variant of punischen ("to punish"; see punish). Also influenced by Middle English punchon ("a punch"; see puncheon). Compare also Middle English bunchen, bonchen (“to punch, deliver a blow, pound, beat”).

Noun

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punch (countable and uncountable, plural punches)

  1. (countable) A hit or strike with one's fist.
    • 2011 November 3, Chris Bevan, “Rubin Kazan 1 - 0 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport‎[1]:
      Another Karadeniz cross led to Cudicini's first save of the night, with the Spurs keeper making up for a weak punch by brilliantly pushing away Christian Noboa's snap-shot.
  2. (countable, rare) A blow from something other than the fist.
    • 1954, C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy:
      For in Tashbaan there is only one traffic regulation, which is that everyone who is less important has to get out of the way for everyone who is more important; unless you want a cut from a whip or a punch from the butt end of a spear.
  3. (uncountable) Power, strength, energy.
    Coordinate term: sting
    The tornado is finally losing its punch.
    • 1978 April 22, Harry Seng, “Gore Vidal: Adjutant to the Gay Camp”, in Gay Community News, page 11:
      Nixon inadvertently took most of the punch out of the Red Scare by trekking to Peking and Moscow.
    • 1981 August 22, Martin Krieger, “Always on the Outside of Whatever Side There Was”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 6, page 9:
      The theorizing often lacks punch and tightness, and that is because Kleinberg is unresolved about how to think about the facts, unsure which are the relevant facts, unsure that thinking itself will be liberating for him.
  4. (uncountable) Impact.
Synonyms
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Hyponyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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See also
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  • (A strike with the fist): slap

Verb

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punch (third-person singular simple present punches, present participle punching, simple past and past participle punched)

  1. (transitive) To strike with one's fist.
    If she punches me, I'm gonna break her nose.
  2. (transitive, of cattle) To herd.
  3. (transitive) To operate (a device or system) by depressing a button, key, bar, or pedal, or by similar means.
    • 1922, William Otis Badger, editor, The Workmen's compensation law journal, volume 10, page 129:
      As night watchman he was required to punch a watchman's clock; the stations were scattered all over the place.
    • 2000, William D. Peterson, United States Life-Saving Service in Michigan‎[2], page 106:
      The patrol clock and punch key system made sure that crewmen completed their patrols. At the far end of his patrol, he used a key to punch his clock and start the return trip.
    • 2007, Dick Juge, The Historic Northwest Passage and the CGC Storis, page 27:
      Another shipmate remembered the watch clock on the strap we had to carry to punching stations. He was assigned to a guard shack. He had rounds to the Officer's Club and sleeping quarters where he'd have to punch the clock at different stations.
  4. (transitive) To enter (information) on a device or system.
  5. (transitive) To hit (a ball or similar object) with less than full force.
    He punched a hit into shallow left field.
  6. (transitive) To make holes in something (rail ticket, leather belt, etc) (see also the verb under Etymology 2).
  7. To thrust against; to poke.
    to punch one with the end of a stick or the elbow
  8. (intransitive, UK, slang) Ellipsis of punch above one's weight, especially, to date somebody more attractive than oneself.
  9. (transitive, wine) To perform pigeage: to stamp down grape skins that float to the surface during fermentation.
  10. (transitive) To emphasize; to give emphasis to.
    Getting a little tired of you punching that word.
  11. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) To light marijuana in a bong.
    We're gonna punch a few cones.
    We're gonna smoke bongs.
Synonyms
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  • (To strike with the fist): box, slug
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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Shortened form of puncheon, from Middle English punchoun, from Old French ponchon (“pointed tool”), from Latin punctio, from punctus, perfect passive participle of pungō (“to prick”).

Noun

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punch (plural punches)

  1. (countable) A device, generally slender and round, used for creating holes in thin material, for driving an object through a hole in a containing object, or to stamp or emboss a mark or design on a surface.
    1. (countable) A mechanism for punching holes in paper or other thin material.
  2. (countable) A hole or opening created with a punch.
  3. (piledriving) An extension piece applied to the top of a pile; a dolly.
  4. A prop, as for the roof of a mine.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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punch (third-person singular simple present punches, present participle punching, simple past and past participle punched)

  1. To employ a punch to create a hole in or stamp or emboss a mark on something.
  2. To mark a ticket.
    • 1950 December, R. C. J. Day and R. K. Kirkland, “The Kelvedon & Tollesbury Light Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 842:
      The guard performs athletic feats in jumping from coach to coach while the train is in motion, taking orders for tickets, punching them on a bell punch in his van, and then returning to distribute them to passengers.
Hypernyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 3

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PIE word
*pénkʷe

    From Hindi पाँच (pā̃c, “five”)/Urdu پانچ (pānc), because of the drink's original five ingredients (spirits, water, lemon juice, sugar, and spice), from Sanskrit पञ्च (páñca). Doublet of cinque, fin (“five currency units”), finnuf, five, pimp (“five”), ponzu, and sengi (“currency”); related to Pompeii.

    Alternative forms

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    Noun

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    punch (usually uncountable, plural punches)

    2. A beverage, generally containing a mixture of fruit juice and some other beverage, often alcoholic.
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    Descendants
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    Translations
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    Etymology 4

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    From Punch.

    Noun

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    punch (plural punches)

    1. (entomology) Any of various riodinid butterflies of the genus Dodona of Asia.

    Etymology 5

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    Uncertain. Perhaps shortened from puncheon (compare German Punze, Punzen (“cask; short fat person or thing”)) or Punchinello.[1]

    Noun

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    punch (plural punches)

    1. (now rare, regional in later use) A short fat person.
      • [1669 May 10 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “April 30th, 1669”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume VIII, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1896, →OCLC, page 310:
        Here I did make the workmen drink, and saw my coach cleaned and oyled; and, staying among poor people there in the alley, did hear them call their fat child Punch, which pleased me mightily, that word being become a word of common use for all that is thick and short.]
      • 1774 May, “Masquerade Intelligence”, in The Covent-Garden Magazine; or, Amorous Repository: […], volume III, London: […] [F]or the Authors; and sold by G. Allen, […], →OCLC, page 182, column 2:
        The company at the maſquerade on May 13, at the Pantheon, was not ſo numerous as uſual. However, there were ſome very good dreſſes, and the characters well ſupported; in particular a punch, who afforded great entertainment.
      • c. 1809, William Wheeler, edited by B[asil] H[enry] Liddell Hart, The Letters of Private Wheeler, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, published 1952, →OCLC, page 2:
        He rides a low poney when on parade and his dress being of the fassion some forty years ago, he has a drole appearance. He has acquired the cognomen of “Punch on a Pig.”
      • 1836 January 10, T[homas] D[udley] Fosbroke, “[Monument of Robert [Curthose] Duke of Normandy]”, in The Gentleman’s Magazine, volume V (New Series), London: William Pickering; John Bowyer Nichols and Son, published March 1836, →OCLC, page 241, column 2:
        Now the effigies makes Robert to have been a juvenile figure of the best height, 5 f. 10 inch.; taller or shorter men being generally ill-made, knock-kneed, or Punches.
    Derived terms
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    Adjective

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    punch (comparative more punch, superlative most punch)

    1. (now rare, Scotland and Northern England in later use) Short and thickset.
      • 1679 June 19–23, The London Gazette, number 1418, London: […] Tho[mas] Newcomb […], →OCLC, page [2], column 2:
        Taken away from two Grooms on Monday the 16th inſtant, in the great Road that leads to Epping from London in Epping-Foreſt, a little gray punch Stoned Horſe, hath all his paces, thorn mane, bob tailed, marked with I. S. on the near ſhoulder, about 14 hands.
      • 1723, A[ubry] De La Mottraye, “A Journey into Akerman-Ozakovian-Crim- and Noghaian-Tartaries, Circassia, &c.”, in A. De La Motraye’s Travels through Europe, Asia, and into Part of Africa; […], volume II, London: […] [F]or the Author, →OCLC, page 25:
        They are generally very much prejudiced in favour of their own Race, whoſe Beauty they think conſiſts in having little Eyes ſunk deep in the Head, black thick Brows, a large flat Noſe and Face, and a ſhort punch Shape, eſpecially for the Women; […]
      • 1820 September 13, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Stratford-on-Avon”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VII, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 62:
        The sexton and his companion had been employed as carpenters on the preparations for the celebrated Stratford Jubilee; and they remembered Garrick, the prime mover of the fête, who superintended the arrangements; and who, according to the sexton, was “a short punch man, very lively and bustling.”

    References

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    1. ^ “punch, n.4”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

    Dutch

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    Alternative forms

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    Etymology

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    Borrowed from English punch.

    Pronunciation

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    • IPA(key): /pʏnʃ/
    • Audio:(file)
    • Hyphenation: punch

    Noun

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    punch m (uncountable, no diminutive)

    1. punch (beverage)

    French

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    Alternative forms

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    Etymology

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    Borrowed from English punch. Doublet of cinq.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    punch m (plural punchs)

    1. punch (drink)

    Further reading

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    Portuguese

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    Etymology 1

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    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    punch m or f (plural punches)

    1. ellipsis of punch line
      • 2016 December 1, Illan Carvalho, “10 dicas fundamentais pra quem quer fazer comédia stand up”, in BHAZ‎[4], Belo Horizonte, archived from the original on 27 May 2025:
        O punch – ou punchline – é a parte da piada em que há quebra ou distorção cômica. É o momento que gera o riso.
        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

    Etymology 2

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    Noun

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    punch m (usually uncountable, plural punches)

    1. obsolete form of ponche

    Spanish

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    Noun

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    punch m (plural punches)

    1. alternative form of ponche (“punch (drink)”)
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