• (RP, GA) enPR: pŭn, IPA: /pʌn/

pun (puns, present participle punning; past and past participle punned)

1. (transitive) To beat#Verb|beat; strike#Verb|strike with force#Noun|force; to ram#Verb|ram; to pound#Verb|pound, as in a mortar; reduce to powder#Noun|powder, to pulverize.

   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i]:

     He would pun thee into shivers with his fist.

2. (intransitive) To make or tell a pun; to make a play on words.

   We punned about the topic until all around us groaned.

pun (plural puns)

1. A joke#Noun|joke or type of wordplay in which similar senses or sounds of two words or phrases, or different senses of the same word, are deliberately confused.

   Synonyms: paronomasia, play on words

   Hypernyms: joke

   hypo en

   • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter VI, in Mansfield Park: A Novel. In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for T[homas] Egerton, […], OCLC 39810224 ↗, page 124 ↗:

     "Certainly, my home at my uncle's brought me acquainted with a circle of admirals. Of Rears, and Vices, I saw enough. Now do not be suspecting me of a pun, I entreat."

     Austen was likely referring to flogging#Noun|flogging or spanking#Noun|spanking, then common naval punishments, known as le vice anglais.

   The pun is the lowest form of wit.

• French: calembour, jeu de mots
• German: Wortspiel, Kalauer
• Italian: gioco di parole, bisticcio, freddura
• Portuguese: trocadilho, chalaça
• Russian: каламбу́р
• Spanish: juego de palabras, calambur, paronomasia, doble sentido, albur (Mexico)

pun (plural puns)

1. (Korean units of measure) Alternative form of bun#English|bun: a Korean unit of length equivalent to about 0.3 cm.

1. Surname