pleased as Punch

See also: pleased as punch

English

WOTD – 15 May 2010

Alternative forms

• pleased as punch

Etymology

From Punch of the Punch and Judy puppet shows.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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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, 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

idiom: pleased with one's achievements

• Finnish: iloinen kuin peipponen
• Russian: (somewhat) сияет как начищенный пята́к (sijajet kak načiščennyj pjaták), рад-радёшенек (rad-radjóšenek)