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View synonyms for practical joke

practical joke

noun

  1. a playful trick, often involving some physical agent or means, in which the victim is placed in an embarrassing or disadvantageous position.


practical joke

noun

  1. a prank or trick usually intended to make the victim appear foolish
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • practical joker, noun
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Other Words From

  • practical joker noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of practical joke1

First recorded in 1840–50
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Example Sentences

Maria has a penchant for practical jokes—a scene in which she places a prank call to a neighbor, fueling the woman’s dreams of becoming a film star, is slightly cruel, but also so perfectly executed that you can’t help laughing.

From Time

Others find humor and stress relief in a good laugh and an amusing practical joke.

Still, when Salazar called to offer him employment, he thought it was a practical joke.

From Fortune

It reads like a practical joke, and a half-baked one at that.

A practical joke later in the season led Snooki to chuck wine bottles—there were plenty lying around—at Sitch.

Weiner tried to pass the thing off as a practical joke inspired by his last name, hoping the press would move on.

There was one practical joke, however, that Paul directed at Altman that did pay off.

I wanted to believe that I was really leaving, that it was not a dream, or some cruel (un)practical joke.

He was beginning to hope that Romanoff had been playing a practical joke on him, and that all his fears were groundless.

He felt that he must be the victim of a practical joke, and it was time that his dignity asserted itself.

Betsy's enjoyment of a joke, even of a practical joke, was perhaps the strongest bond between the Emperor and his little neighbor.

He recognized it as no more than a practical joke, plain and simple; but the idea was clamoring for attention.

Pushing Tony inside, and then closing the door behind, he retreated, laughing heartily to himself over his practical joke.

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