punched up; punching up; punches up
: to give energy or forcefulness to
jokes added to punch up a speech
Examples of punch-up in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 4 Jan. 2025
Toward the end there’s a punch-up, with several players involved.
—David Szalay, The New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2024
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 18 Dec. 2024
Part of that is knowing when to linger on a closeup (go back and rewatch the scene leading up to Joanne and Noah’s first kiss) and when to punch up the comedy by increasing the tempo — before interrupting the rhythm to land a joke.
—Mark Peikert, IndieWire, 23 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for punch-up 
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Noun
Often, when shows do crossovers, the writers on one will do punch-up for their characters on the other.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 4 Jan. 2025
Toward the end there’s a punch-up, with several players involved.
—David Szalay, The New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2024
Verb
That was really hard, because there is something about being in person, getting to talk to the actors, being flexible and having alts and punching up jokes on the fly, and just being there and seeing how the show is actually made.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 18 Dec. 2024
Part of that is knowing when to linger on a closeup (go back and rewatch the scene leading up to Joanne and Noah’s first kiss) and when to punch up the comedy by increasing the tempo — before interrupting the rhythm to land a joke.
—Mark Peikert, IndieWire, 23 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for punch-up
Dictionary Entries Near punch-up
Cite this Entry
“Punch-up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/punch-up. Accessed 21 Jan. 2025.
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