pleased as Punch

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See also: pleased as punch

English

WOTD – 15 May 2010

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Punch of the Punch and Judy puppet shows.

Pronunciation

Adjective

pleased as Punch (not comparable)

  1. (colloquial, simile, dated) Pleased with one's actions or achievements.
    Synonyms: complacent, smug
    • 1840, M. A. Titmarsh [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Paris Sketch Book, volume I, London: John Macrone, , →OCLC, page 41:
      He was out, too, when I called at his hotel; but once, I had the good fortune to see him, with his hat curiously on one side, looking as pleased as Punch, and being driven, in an open cab, in the Champs Elysées.
    • 1869 May, Anthony Trollope, chapter XLIX, in He Knew He Was Right, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Strahan and Company, , →OCLC:
      " […] Now,—what'll the old woman say?"
      "She'll be pleased as Punch, I should think," said Stanbury.
    • 1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XL, in Middlemarch , volume II, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book IV, page 327:
      Then with a little start of remembrance he said, “Mary, write and give up that school. Stay and help your mother. I’m as pleased as Punch, now I’ve thought of that.”
    • 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter CXXII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:
      Sally looked at him with her clear eyes. “Aren’t you glad?” she asked again. “I thought you’d be as pleased as Punch.”

Translations

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