I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
black joke
▪
a very black joke
dirty jokes
▪
kids telling dirty jokes
filthy language/story/joke etc
funny story/joke/film etc
▪
Do you remember any funny stories about work?
joke wears thin
▪
The film begins well but the joke wears thin after about ten minutes.
practical joke
pull a stunt/trick/joke
▪
Don’t you ever pull a stunt like that again!
see the joke
▪
The other officers laughed, but Nichols couldn’t see the joke .
tell a joke
▪
They sat around telling terrible jokes.
weak joke
▪
a weak joke
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
bad
▪
What a bad joke and misnomer that is.
▪
The sky was obscene in its brightness, the crimson rocks a bad joke .
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To make up for the unkindness, he made a bad and nervous joke .
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Or the butt of a bad joke .
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It's a joke , a bad joke.
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Rumors were far more relevant than bad jokes because rumors moved markets.
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What it put me in mind of was a very bad joke that once ran in my family.
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In particular, she could have done without the bad jokes .
big
▪
Of course, the real reasons for the biggest joke played by Britain's voters on the pollsters since 1970 were more complicated.
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But he is rescued, along with others, and the whole terrifying ordeal, he discovers, becomes a big joke .
▪
Kellaway skipped a few pages. Big joke .
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The man thought everything was a big joke .
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My big present was a big joke .
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He went with me to the house, me thinking it was all a big joke .
cruel
▪
He hated Big Tom Fish, with his cruel jokes and flashing green eyes and rough workman's hands.
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But the free-range, corn-fed chicken was the victim of a cruel joke .
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The gods were enjoying their own cruel joke !
funny
▪
Dolly said his jokes still weren't very funny .
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I thought his poetry was funnier than his jokes , but I often got things wrong in those days.
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Both laughed delightedly, as if I had cracked some very funny joke .
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Tom told a clean, mildly funny joke , and Marge laughed hilariously.
good
▪
Know any good jokes , seen any howlers in print?
▪
Since the stonemasons were usually allowed to create their own designs, they were also given the freedom to crack good jokes .
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When he found out I knew Yiddish he always had a good joke or a good line.
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A collection of good Day jokes would fill a minor anthology.
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When our taxi driver picks us up, he looks like he has just been told a good joke .
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Far more interesting than your average conversation that involves people or a good old fashioned joke I don't think.
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That would be a good joke !
little
▪
The art work is primitive but the silly little joke is what comics used to be about.
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Rain thanked her, not having the heart to tell her about Georgie's other little joke .
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They seemed quite pleasant young people, who listened intently to my greetings, my introductions and my little jokes .
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They stood aside and let us pass, though we heard the sniggers and laughter caused by their little jokes .
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He often said that, it was one of his little jokes .
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He sees them as little jokes , the same way he sees Miro.
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Well, let him have his little joke !
old
▪
Hailed as a success story for the planners, for some this new town will remain an old joke .
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Remember that old joke: In every fat person there is a thin one trying to get out.
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An old joke had found a brave new teller.
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But like the old joke , they prepare for nuclear attack by gathering the wagons into a circle.
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There is an old joke about the termites holding hands to keep a building up.
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The old joke went: Q.. What do they call organized crime in Oklahoma?
practical
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I reckon it must have been a practical joke: some one sticking it in her chair.
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They went in for practical jokes , which at times could be trying.
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The sheer viciousness of Peggy Soong's practical joke choked her.
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At first I thought it was an enormous practical joke .
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Perhaps the loss of sunlight was behind a small eruption of quarrels and pointless practical jokes .
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All his life, he enjoyed heedless and extreme practical jokes .
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He is, however, not a trustworthy sprite, and delights in practical jokes of a bizarre and sometimes gruesome nature.
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Had he been brought here as some kind of practical joke ?
private
▪
Melford, now he had tasted blood, seemed to be revelling in some private joke .
▪
But I sensed they were getting along fine and easy-sharing private jokes and the like.
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His private joke is annoying me.
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We feel like a family, with private jokes to share, a history.
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Throughout they appeared to be sharing some private joke .
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He turned away as we entered, shoulders shaking as if relishing some private joke .
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My own ... Private jokes , no longer comprehended, pull their punchlines, fall flat in the gaps between endearments.
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But Sir Thomas liked riddles and his own private jokes .
sick
▪
In 1981, you couldn't pass off wearing a swastika as a sick joke .
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I thought it was a sick joke , but it wasn't.
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Oh, and plantation workers sometimes earn as little as 25 cents a day ... These are sick jokes .
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Either way, it was an occasion for black humour, or at least sick jokes .
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It sounds like a sick joke but they are deadly serious.
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Somebody is playing a sick , horrible joke on you.
■ VERB
become
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But as time went on, it became less of a joke .
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His name became a joke between them.
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It became a standing joke that we would eventually work together, and then one day it became serious.
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But he is rescued, along with others, and the whole terrifying ordeal, he discovers, becomes a big joke .
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The service areas, with their awful tea and rubber sandwiches, had become a music hall joke .
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It became a joke to ply him with half-pints of beer and fantasies about each other's unfitness for battle.
▪
When brand names become the butt of jokes , trouble could lie ahead.
crack
▪
Since the stonemasons were usually allowed to create their own designs, they were also given the freedom to crack good jokes .
▪
I cracked jokes , told stories, performed little tricks with the silverware.
▪
Maxie Carlo must've cracked a joke .
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Both laughed delightedly, as if I had cracked some very funny joke .
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And he was clean and tidy now, and civil, and could even crack a joke .
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Before tempers flared, Dutriz cracked a joke , and talk returned to the news.
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When he cracks a joke or whatever he does in front of the class, he just turn round and laugh.
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Mike and his robots maintain their sanity by cracking jokes during the movie.
enjoy
▪
He said you'd enjoy the joke on the king!
▪
She enjoyed witty remarks and jokes , and would hold her waist in both hands and bend double with laughter.
▪
At the time she gave me the impression that she was enjoying the joke .
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The more obnoxious I am, the more people enjoy the joke .
▪
I can not remember us jabber of journos enjoying a joke more.
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The gods were enjoying their own cruel joke !
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There were some Aussies in the crowd enjoying a good joke at our expense.
make
▪
The notion that he might make any joke , except an obscene one, I dismissed without a second thought.
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You had your own reasons for making the call, and why not make a joke out of it?
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He kept making jokes about fencing which involved parrying with an imaginary sword and shouting en garde every few minutes.
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He did not kno., v that he had made a joke until he saw Mel slapping his thigh and laughing.
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Maggie said that I shouldn't make risky jokes with assessors in case they take it the wrong way.
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Howe has been on a roll this spring, making self-effacing, folksy jokes at every opportunity.
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He makes a joke of the injury because, at 59, it is an inconvenience rather than a disaster.
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Waving the spy photos, making jokes about the air samples the plane had allegedly been sent to gather.
play
▪
And revenge had been in his mind when playing the joke on Music Week.
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In one of them, a man named Wakefield decides to play a joke on his wife.
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My friend told me he'd played a joke on me and not to take any notice.
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They would come over anytime of day or night to drink, play poker and tell jokes .
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In a more mellow mood, the bogie will simply play practical jokes .
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My instinct was to assume that she was playing a vicious joke .
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That the boy was just simple and given to playing stupid jokes .
run
▪
A man whose name is so synonymous with a suntan that it is a running joke in Doonesbury?
share
▪
Until Thursday Labour might have shared that joke .
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He no longer stared at the alien wires, and the two of them even laughed a little, sharing some joke .
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As I thanked her, Marie looked over her shoulder at Bobbie and gave a little shrug, sharing the joke with her.
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They shared laughs and small jokes .
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She and mummy could always share jokes - mummy never lost her temper over them like that, especially not in public.
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Throughout they appeared to be sharing some private joke .
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They may share a joke with Ida.
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I never saw her treat a child harshly or unkindly; in fact, she would frequently share a joke with us.
tell
▪
Jack Firebrace told a series of jokes in the style of a music hall comic.
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They had eaten lunch together and told jokes together and slowly learned how to communicate with one another.
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If you succumb to the temptation to tell contrived jokes , ration yourself to two per day.
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What makes him think he can tell that kind of joke ?
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To hide his fear he asked Zach to tell a joke and do his funny buffalo step.
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You know, you tell a joke even worse than your father.
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Some one phoned up a pre-watershed live show and started telling a joke about putting suppositories up your bum.
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She proceeded to tell him a joke so corny that Uncle Billy would have flatly refused it for his own collection.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be sprinkled with jokes/quotations etc
crack a joke
▪
He was relaxed and cracking jokes, despite his ordeal.
▪
And he was clean and tidy now, and civil, and could even crack a joke.
▪
Before tempers flared, Dutriz cracked a joke, and talk returned to the news.
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I cracked jokes, told stories, performed little tricks with the silverware.
▪
Maxie Carlo must've cracked a joke.
▪
Mike and his robots maintain their sanity by cracking jokes during the movie.
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They crack jokes, laughing and shouting.
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We all cracked jokes over the intercom and talked about what we were going to do.
▪
When he cracks a joke or whatever he does in front of the class, he just turn round and laugh.
feed lines/jokes to sb
is it sb's idea of a joke?
joking apart
▪
Joking apart , I do feel somebody should tell him what we think. It's for his own good.
▪
Peter joking apart have the tories done themselves any good this week?
naughty jokes/magazines/films etc
play a joke/trick/prank on sb
▪
He had always played tricks on her.
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Her brain had to be playing tricks on her.
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In one of them, a man named Wakefield decides to play a joke on his wife.
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It allowed me to detect instances when time played tricks on the memory of some of the respondents.
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Jack felt edgy but convinced himself that his nerves were playing tricks on him.
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Somewhat perturbed, Ted flung the door open still believing that the platelayers were playing tricks on him.
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They delight in playing tricks on mortals, though they will cease to give trouble if politely requested to do so.
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Yes, fate was playing tricks on me.
private joke
▪
But I sensed they were getting along fine and easy-sharing private jokes and the like.
▪
But Sir Thomas liked riddles and his own private jokes.
▪
He turned away as we entered, shoulders shaking as if relishing some private joke.
▪
His private joke is annoying me.
▪
Melford, now he had tasted blood, seemed to be revelling in some private joke.
▪
They were laughing into each other's faces at some private joke; they hadn't seen me.
▪
Throughout they appeared to be sharing some private joke.
▪
We feel like a family, with private jokes to share, a history.
running battle/joke
▪
A man whose name is so synonymous with a suntan that it is a running joke in Doonesbury?
▪
An even longer running battle was fought in the royal dockyards.
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As well as his running battle with Monkou, he left stud marks on defender Richard Hall.
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I was not told, when we left, that I should have to fight a running battle with four hundred horsemen.
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In the resulting confrontation several hundred Mohawks armed with clubs and guns fought running battles with police.
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Police and demonstrators regularly engage in running battles near Mr Suharto's home in central Jakarta.
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The fighters quickly pursued them and eventually shot down every one in a running battle.
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They saw graffiti on important public memorials and they saw running battles with the police.
standing joke
▪
A bad mistake, as this became a standing joke for the rest of the week.
▪
He'd been so much taller than her for such a long time that it had become a standing joke.
▪
It became a standing joke that we would eventually work together, and then one day it became serious.
▪
It had been a standing joke.
▪
It is a standing joke between them, he hopes, how sophisticated their boy is.
▪
It was something of a standing joke that she lived up to her Libran indecisiveness.
stock of jokes/knowledge/courage etc
▪
These stocks of knowledge can be altered by interactions, through negotiation.
▪
This ties in with the notion of the negotiable nature of people's stocks of knowledge.
threadbare excuse/argument/joke etc
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
Do you want to hear a good joke ?
▪
Everyone laughed except Mr Broadbent, who didn't see the joke .
▪
Have you heard any good jokes lately?
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I can take a joke as well as anyone, but this isn't funny, it's embarrassing.
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In some situations, a dirty joke can be considered sexual harassment.
▪
Inside the parcel there was an empty bottle. "Is this some kind of joke ?'' he asked.
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It's a good idea to start a speech by telling a joke .
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It wasn't that I didn't get the joke - I just didn't think it was funny.
▪
Leno opened the show with a joke about the election.
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The two girls were whispering in the corner and giggling over some private joke .
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We didn't mean to frighten you. It was only a joke .
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What a joke that meeting was.
▪
Wilson spoke for about 15 minutes, peppering his mainly serious message with jokes.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
And that was a joke , because I was half-dead with worry myself.
▪
But he is rescued, along with others, and the whole terrifying ordeal, he discovers, becomes a big joke .
▪
It is much too risky at the start of an interaction to make a joke about the other person.
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The joke goes on to say that every night is Wednesday!
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They may even have a few jokes of their own.
▪
You're given comedy and miss all the jokes.
II. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
about
▪
Don't joke about serious issues or say things you don't mean or it could be held against you later.
▪
The two joked about running a joint write-in campaign, then started to take the joke seriously.
▪
Always joking about rats: that's what I call a weird sense of humour.
▪
Some one joked about opening a tranquilizer concession.
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I don't think a lot of the staff liked you laughing and joking about .
▪
Clinton supporters joke about how nice it would have been had Buchanan been the opposing nominee.
▪
Though Cosby joked about it, Ennis' school performance in those years was anything but funny offstage.
▪
Certainly there were plenty of things wrong within that school building and there was enough we could have joked about .
around
▪
Some of this is very serious, and some of it is joking around .
▪
Well, as a matter of fact, you did, but as you say, that was just joking around .
only
▪
They had only joked about my going back to Bhuj because they thought I needed cheering up.
▪
Bill Shankly was only joking when he said football was more important than life and death.
▪
Of course, Fagan was only joking about not having Chaffee back next year.
■ VERB
laugh
▪
Initially, she claimed that when she left the gardens, Mrs McMullen was laughing and joking with McLean.
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With no worries of visits from secret police, we laughed and joked the night away, drinking wine and plum brandy.
▪
Where everything was just plain and simple, laughing and joking the norm.
▪
We laughed and joked , Ichiro trying the whiskey, me sipping a little sake.
▪
He started to laugh and joked back.
▪
They laughed and joked , and sometimes when the topic of the war came up, they became quiet.
▪
We laughed and joked throughout and won the tournament.
▪
I was out of my seat and out of the lecture hall before he could finish laughing at his own joke .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
is it sb's idea of a joke?
joking apart
▪
Joking apart , I do feel somebody should tell him what we think. It's for his own good.
▪
Peter joking apart have the tories done themselves any good this week?
naughty jokes/magazines/films etc
private joke
▪
But I sensed they were getting along fine and easy-sharing private jokes and the like.
▪
But Sir Thomas liked riddles and his own private jokes.
▪
He turned away as we entered, shoulders shaking as if relishing some private joke.
▪
His private joke is annoying me.
▪
Melford, now he had tasted blood, seemed to be revelling in some private joke.
▪
They were laughing into each other's faces at some private joke; they hadn't seen me.
▪
Throughout they appeared to be sharing some private joke.
▪
We feel like a family, with private jokes to share, a history.
running battle/joke
▪
A man whose name is so synonymous with a suntan that it is a running joke in Doonesbury?
▪
An even longer running battle was fought in the royal dockyards.
▪
As well as his running battle with Monkou, he left stud marks on defender Richard Hall.
▪
I was not told, when we left, that I should have to fight a running battle with four hundred horsemen.
▪
In the resulting confrontation several hundred Mohawks armed with clubs and guns fought running battles with police.
▪
Police and demonstrators regularly engage in running battles near Mr Suharto's home in central Jakarta.
▪
The fighters quickly pursued them and eventually shot down every one in a running battle.
▪
They saw graffiti on important public memorials and they saw running battles with the police.
standing joke
▪
A bad mistake, as this became a standing joke for the rest of the week.
▪
He'd been so much taller than her for such a long time that it had become a standing joke.
▪
It became a standing joke that we would eventually work together, and then one day it became serious.
▪
It had been a standing joke.
▪
It is a standing joke between them, he hopes, how sophisticated their boy is.
▪
It was something of a standing joke that she lived up to her Libran indecisiveness.
stock of jokes/knowledge/courage etc
▪
These stocks of knowledge can be altered by interactions, through negotiation.
▪
This ties in with the notion of the negotiable nature of people's stocks of knowledge.
threadbare excuse/argument/joke etc
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
A group of teenagers were standing at the corner, laughing and joking.
▪
They're a good class to teach. You can joke and have a laugh with them.
▪
When he was a kid he was embarrassed about his height, but now he can joke about it.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Armed with his Bumper Fun Book, the minister of Dunlop joked his way around the world at various functions.
▪
I must tell Philippa that I was joking.
▪
I was unresponsive and kept joking with him about it - but I made it clear I wasn't interested.
▪
Now he was joking about the rumours of his marriage.
▪
Some one joked about opening a tranquilizer concession.
▪
Though Cosby joked about it, Ennis' school performance in those years was anything but funny offstage.
▪
Well, okay, he joked, his voice smooth as glass.