pleased as Punch

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Punch of the Punch and Judy puppet shows.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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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, volume (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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