punch

• IPA^(key): /pʌnt͡ʃ/, /pʌnʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌntʃ

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”).

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.

   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.

• (strike with the fist): blow, box, knuckle sandwich, bunch of fives (UK)
• (power, strength): oomph, pep

• (strike with the fist): jab, hook, king hit, uppercut, pounding

• puncheon

• (A strike with the fist): slap

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).
   • 2014 October 27, Taylor Swift, Imogen Heap, “Clean (Taylor's Version)”, in 1989 (Taylor's Version)‎^[3], performed by Taylor Swift, published 2023 October 27:

     So I punched a hole in the roof, ah-ah, ah-ah
     Let the flood carry away all my pictures of you

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, winemaking) 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.

• (To strike with the fist): box, slug

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

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.

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.

• (to create a hole): perforate, pierce

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 पञ्चन् (páñcan). Doublet of cinque, five, pimp (“five”), ponzu, and sengi (“currency”); related to Pompeii.

• punce (obsolete)
• pince (obsolete)

punch (usually uncountable, plural punches)

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

From Punch.

punch (plural punches)

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

• pons (obsolete)
• puns (dated)

Borrowed from English punch.

• IPA^(key): /pʏnʃ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: punch

punch m (uncountable)

1. punch (beverage)

• ponch (post-1990 spelling)

Borrowed from English punch. Doublet of cinq.

• IPA^(key): /pɔ̃ʃ/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

punch m (plural punchs)

1. punch (drink)

• “punch”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

punch m (plural punches)

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