the joke is on someone
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.63 in modern English
34
Scrabble Score
18
Letters
3
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
phrase
Someone is the butt of a joke or is experiencing a negative outcome, especially if that person was trying to make someone else the butt of the joke or subject them to the negative outcome.
Example Sentences
- "As only a small per cent of the dealers use the word "Leghorn," and the ones who do try to use it can't tell a Leghorn from a mixed breed or from many other breeds, the most of the joke is on someone else."
- "Like Cole, we see through the penny-trick instantly, but the joke is on us, and on Malcolm himself, because we fall for the same joke on the level of the film as a whole."
- "“Guess what? The joke's on you because I'm going places, getting out of this nowhere town.”"
- ""Well, the joke's on you because I'm resigning from the gymnast team. And if I resign, so will my friends, particularly when I tell them why.""