Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

punch someone's lights out

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.92 in modern English

Syllables: punch -some-one's -light-s out
IPA

35

Scrabble Score

22

Letters

5

Syllables

13

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To give someone a serious beating using one's fists; to punch someone until he or she is unconscious.

Example Sentences

""My intention was to punch his lights out," Parker said of Garber, "but as I got closer to the mound, my faculties came back and I cooled off. I just him and asked him what was going on.""
"After nasty phone calls, curses hurled over the back fence, fist-shaking, and other attempts to impress him with your seriousness, you meet him at the supermarket, lose control, and punch his lights out."
"A Jersey Guy is a guy who does his duty and loves his family and will punch your lights out if you insult his wife."

Etymology

Chiefly by the metaphor of extinguishing someone's lights as sources of illumination (thus putting out their lights, e.g., snuffing out their lamps, lanterns, candles, or torches), but the sense of light as sightedness or vision is cognitively adjacent, nearly setting up an interpretation of lights as referring to the eyes themselves, which close (via the eyelids) at the advent of unconsciousness; the potentially variable figurativeness behind by one's lights is comparable here.

Inflected Forms

punches someone's lights out (present, singular) punching someone's lights out (participle, present) punched someone's lights out (participle, past) punched someone's lights out (past)

Phrases

put someone's lights out

Frequently Paired Words

put someone's lights out

Synonyms

beat someone's brains out beat to a pulp knock someone's lights out

Questions

What does punch someone's lights out mean?: To give someone a serious beating using one's fists; to punch someone until he or she is unconscious.
Where does punch someone's lights out come from?: Chiefly by the metaphor of extinguishing someone's lights as sources of illumination (thus putting out their lights, e.g., snuffing out their lamps, lanterns, candles, or torches), but the sense of light as sightedness or vision is cognitively adjacent, nearly setting up an interpretation of lights as referring to the eyes themselves, which close (via the eyelids) at the advent of unconsciousness; the potentially variable figurativeness behind by one's lights is comparable here.

How to pronounce punch someone's lights out

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