Punch (punch)

[Abbr. of Punchinello, by conformation with punch3.] A short humpbacked hook-nosed puppet, with a squeaking voice, the chief character in a street puppet show called “Punch and Judy," who strangles his child, beats his wife (Judy) to death, belabors a policeman, and does other tragical and outrageous things in a comical way. punch5 (punch), n. [Formerly also pounche, punce (= D. pons = G. Sw. Dan. punsch = F. punch, ponche = Sp. Pg. ponche = It. punchio, ponchio, 4846 marble-working: as, a dog's-tooth or gradin puncheon; a stone-cutters' puncheon. E. H. Knight. (b) A tool by which a plate-mark is put upon silverware or the like. That other signet of gold, wt my puncheon of ivory and silver, I geue and bequeath unto Robert my secunde sone. Fabyan , Chron., I., Pref., p. vii. 2. In carp.: ( a ) A short upright piece of timber in framing; a dwarf post, stud, or quarter. ( b ) A slab of split timber with the face smoothed with an adz or ax, sometimes used for flooring or bridge-boards in the absence of sawed boards. [U. S.] The house was constructed of logs, and the floor was of puncheons -a term which in Georgia means split logs with their faces a little smoothed with the axe or hatchet. Georgia Scenes, p. 12. He had danced on puncheon floors before, but never on one that rattled so loudly. The Century , XXXIX. 286. (c) One of the small quarters of a partition above the head of a door. E. H. Knight . puncheon2 (pun'chon), n. [Formerly also pun chi on; ME. not found; = the stamp or print impre ed on the cask by a puncheon or stamping-tool, and so a transferred use of puncheon1 (cf. hogshead, a cask). The OF. poçon, po on, a small measure, quarter of a pint, can hardly be related. The G. dial. (Bav.) punzen, ponzen, a cask, is perhaps of F. origin.] A cask; a liquid measure of from 72 to 120 gallons: as, a puncheon of wine. The puncheon of beer in London contained 72 beer-gallons; that of wine, 84 wine-gallons. The latter value was legalized in 1423. And he's sew'd up the bloody hide, A puncheon o' wine put in. King Henry (Child's Ballads, I. 149). note various mixtures of five things, as panch āmrit, a mixture of milk, curds, sugar, glue, and honey, panch - bhadra, a sauce of five ingredients, panch - pallav, a medical preparation from the sprouts of five trees, etc., or sets of five things, as panch - pir, five saints, panch - gavya, the five things yielded by the cow, etc.; also alone for an a embly of five men, or any council (cf. punch a yet).] A drink commonly made with wine or spirits, and either water or some substitute, as a decoction of tea, and flavored with lemon-juice or lemon-peel and sugar. Punch is usually named from the alcoholic liquor which it contains, as brandy- punch, claret - punch, rum- punch, but sometimes also from other ingredients, as milk - punch, tea punch, or from some person or circumstance, as Regent's punch, Swedish punch, Webster punch. E'en now the godlike Brutus views his score Scroll'd on the bar-board, swinging with the door; Where, tippling punch , grave Cato's self you see, And Amor Patriæ vending smuggled tea. Crabbe , Works, I. 186. Punch had begun to make its appearance, but it was a simple liquor to what afterwards became known by that name. J. Ashton , Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, I. 202. Cobbler's punch. See cobbler1 . - Roman punch. See Roman .