pleased as Punch en · ADJ
Pronunciation
Etymology
From Punch of the Punch and Judy puppet shows.
Meanings
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(colloquial, dated, not-comparable, qualifier:simile) Pleased.
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.”
1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XL, in Middlemarch […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book IV, page 327:Sally looked at him with her clear eyes. “Aren’t you glad?” she asked again. “I thought you’d be as pleased as Punch.”
1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter CXXII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:"[…]Now,—what'll the old woman say?" "She'll be pleased as Punch, I should think," said Stanbury.
1869 May, Anthony Trollope, chapter XLIX, in He Knew He Was Right, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Strahan and Company, […], →OCLC:
- (colloquial, dated, not-comparable, qualifier:simile) Pleased. ▸ Pleased with one's own actions or achievements.
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(colloquial, dated, not-comparable, qualifier:simile, sometimes) Pleased. ▸ Pleased with one's own actions or achievements. ▸ Smugly so.
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.
1840, M. A. Titmarsh [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Paris Sketch Book, volume I, London: John Macrone, […], →OCLC, page 41:Near-synonyms: self-satisfied, complacent, smug, like a pig in clover, happy as a pig in shit
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| pleased as punch | alternative | lexicographic |
Synonyms
complacent · smug · happy as a pig in shit · self-satisfied · like a pig in clover
Translations (3)
fi iloinen kuin peipponen (idiom: pleased with one's achievements) · ru рад-радёшенек (idiom: pleased with one's achievements) · ru сияет как начищенный пята́к (idiom: pleased with one's achievements)