Advertisement
Advertisement
put-on
[ noun poot-on, -awn; adjective poot-on, -awn ]
noun
- an act or instance of putting someone on.
- a prank or pretense, especially one perpetrated or assumed in mock seriousness; hoax; spoof.
- affected manner or behavior; pretentiousness.
adjective
- assumed, feigned, pretended, or disguised:
a put-on manner that didn't fool anyone.
put on
verb
- to clothe oneself in
to put on a coat
- usually passive to adopt (an attitude or feeling) insincerely
his misery was just put on
- to present or stage (a play, show, etc)
- to increase or add
the batsman put on fifty runs before lunch
she put on weight
- to cause (an electrical device) to function
- also preposition to wager (money) on a horse race, game, etc
he put ten pounds on the favourite
- also preposition to impose as a burden or levy
to put a tax on cars
- cricket to cause (a bowler) to bowl
- put someone on
- to connect (a person) by telephone
- to mock or tease
noun
- a hoax or piece of mockery
- an affected manner or mode of behaviour
Word History and Origins
Origin of put-on1
Example Sentences
“People trust me because I’m not a put-on.”
To Finch’s credit, this wasn’t a complete political put-on.
But he writes with sensitivity too, from painterly depictions of the Palm Desert and Salton Sea to riffs on the Talmud that suggest Cohen’s faith isn’t entirely a put-on.
But it was just a tactic — what Kanai called a “put-on.”
He described the unorthodox and at times controversial comedian Andy Kaufman as “the pre-eminent put-on artist of his generation” and “a pioneering practitioner of various cultural trends long before they ever became trends.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Browse