PRACTICAL JOKE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Practical joke

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/prˈæktəkəl dʒoʊk/ Listen

noun

Joke n.

1.

Something said for the sake of exciting a laugh; something witty or sportive (commonly indicating more of hilarity or humor than jest); a jest; a witticism; as, to crack good-natured jokes. "And gentle dullness ever loves a joke." "Or witty joke our airy senses moves To pleasant laughter."

2.

Something not said seriously, or not actually meant; something done in sport. "Inclose whole downs in walls, 't is all a joke."

In joke, in jest; sportively; not meant seriously.

Practical joke. See under Practical.

adjective

Practical adj.

1.

Of or pertaining to practice or action.

2.

Capable of being turned to use or account; useful, in distinction from ideal or theoretical; as, practical chemistry. "Man's practical understanding." "For all practical purposes."

3.

Evincing practice or skill; capable of applying knowledge to some useful end; as, a practical man; a practical mind.

4.

Derived from practice; as, practical skill.

Practical joke, a joke put in practice; a joke the fun of which consists in something done, in distinction from something said; esp., a trick played upon a person.

See images of 'Practical joke'

Etymology of 'Practical joke'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Practical joke" Quotes from Famous Books

... of course," said Terry. "No fellow would be ass enough to advertise himself like that in earnest. Probably the thing's been put in for a bet, or else it's a practical joke." ...

— My Friend the Chauffeur • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... shocks. I was engaged in shaving early one morning in our little wooden house, when I felt myself pushed violently against the dressing-table, almost removing my chin with the razor at the same time. I suspected my nephew of a practical joke, and called out angrily to him. In an aggrieved voice he protested that he had not touched me, but had himself been hurled by an unseen agency against the wardrobe. Then came a perfect cannonade of nuts from an overhanging tree ...

— Here, There And Everywhere • Lord Frederic Hamilton

... sinks this relation to a level with sensualism or folly. I hear almost daily from the lips of professedly religious men and women, language and thoughts on this subject which bespeak a carnal heart and an unsanctified mind. They treat the relation with levity. They make it a practical joke. They look at it through carnal eyes, and listen to its language with carnal ears. Their whole conception and practical understanding of it is sensuous. I have but little confidence in their religion. It is only an emotion of the heart. It has never sanctified the conscience ...

— Aims and Aids for Girls and Young Women • George Sumner Weaver

... a Higher Power, Peters had replied, good humoredly, that "a Creator who could fool around with them in that style was above being interfered with by prayer." At first the calamity had been a thing to fight against; then it became a practical joke, the sting of which was lost in the victims' power of endurance and assumed ignorance of its purport. There was something almost pathetic in their attempts to ...

— A First Family of Tasajara • Bret Harte

... couldn't be otherwise. If it were otherwise it would be ridiculous. A man who made love as though he were preaching a sermon, or a man who preached a sermon as though he were teasing schoolboys, or a man who described a death as though he were describing a practical joke, must necessarily be either an ass or a lunatic." Just so. You have put it in a nutshell. You have disposed of the problem of style so far as it can ...

— Literary Taste: How to Form It • Arnold Bennett

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