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Examples of punch line in a Sentence
She didn't understand the punch line.
Recent Examples on the Web
Some play major roles, while others show up for a punch line or two then waltz off into the Space Age distance.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 3 May 2024
Tangent Biden has used his own age as a punch line in public appearances in recent months.
—Sara Dorn, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024
Ryan Gosling's dog costar in his upcoming movie The Fall Guy is not just a punch line.
—Tommy McArdle, Peoplemag, 14 Mar. 2024
Paramount—and the obscene wealth of Hollywood in general—was a frequent punch line for him, invoking, perhaps, the initial purpose of the Academy Awards themselves when they were started, in the late 1920s.
—Fran Hoepfner, The Atlantic, 10 Mar. 2024
But the punch line is quickly followed by a more honest admission.
—Hanna Lustig, Glamour, 14 Feb. 2024
In private, Mayorkas—who is short, fit, and bald, with bushy eyebrows and a cadet’s ramrod posture—is ironic, sharp-witted, and charismatic, a raconteur who leaps out of his seat to exaggerate a detail or deliver a punch line.
—Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker, 17 Feb. 2024
The punch line did not come close to the kind of satire Putin’s Russia needed and deserved.
—Simon Shuster, TIME, 4 Jan. 2024
The bleak statistic that half of marriages end in divorce has been in the zeitgeist for so long now that it’s become a punch line.
—Laura Newberry, Los Angeles Times, 28 Nov. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'punch line.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1916, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near punch line
Cite this Entry
“Punch line.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/punch%20line. Accessed 28 May. 2024.
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