punch-drunk

adjective

ˈpənch-ˌdrəŋk How to pronounce punch-drunk (audio)
Definition of punch-drunknext
as in dazed
suffering from mental confusion punch-drunk from having stayed up all night, she struggled through the exam

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of punch-drunk The yen looked punch-drunk on Wednesday after a sudden spill overnight, pressured by wide interest rate differentials between Japan and the rest of the world. — Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 19 June 2026 Candy thought so too, later recalling that the only hard part of filming the scene was doing it over and over again for Hughes and his punch-drunk crew. — Lizz Schumer, PEOPLE, 7 Oct. 2025 Guiducci arrives at a moment when some of that anger has subsided, and the punch-drunk culture seems counterintuitively eager to escape into nostalgia and tastemaking, splashy profiles, and — just sometimes — confrontational journalism. — Max Tani, semafor.com, 25 Aug. 2025 Having given us a punch-drunk vision of romantic dilemmas in her masterpiece of a debut, Song now delivers a more practical, hangover-adjacent look at how the human need for relationships gets turned into a bespoke luxury item. — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 12 June 2025 Only the most punch-drunk partisan would give Republicans as much as a 50-50 chance of succeeding Gavin Newsom. — Mark Barabak, Mercury News, 30 Apr. 2025 It’s better described as a series of springy volleys backward and forward through time—the movie ping-pongs between 2019 and 2006, with stops in between—that leave you feeling a little dizzy, even a bit punch-drunk. — Stephanie Zacharek, TIME, 26 Apr. 2024 The notion that anyone might make a beeline to turn this punch-drunk nonsense into a new Statham franchise seems unlikely. — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Jan. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for punch-drunk
  1. dazed
  2. bewildered
  3. confused
  4. distracted
  5. stunned
  6. dizzy
Adjective
  • Garcia, meanwhile, had nothing to compare her first season to, and still sounded a little dazed despite shooting having finished months ago.
    — Peter Larsen, Oc Register, 9 July 2026
  • Nina emerges, dazed but uninjured, her cellphone intact, her boyfriend Ben vanished.
    — Hamilton Cain, Time, 7 July 2026
Definition of dazed
Adjective
  • Away from the bewildered rancher calling out in surprise, away from the Appaloosa.
    — Emily Ruskovich, The Atlantic, 7 July 2026
  • Massachusetts State Police ushered thousands of bewildered attendees into the tunnel.
    — Karissa Waddick, USA Today, 4 July 2026
Definition of bewildered
Adjective
  • Many victims feel embarrassed or confused and wait, and that delay is exactly what the scammers are counting on.
    — Gary Singer, Sun Sentinel, 9 July 2026
  • If anyone becomes hot to the touch, extremely confused or unconscious, get help immediately.
    — Hanna Wickes, Sacbee.com, 8 July 2026
Definition of confused
Adjective
  • Trump has pioneered a style of communication that exploits our distracted, disputatious age.
    — Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic, 8 July 2026
  • Investigators don’t believe that the driver was intoxicated, but distracted driving has not been ruled out as a potential cause of the accident, according to police.
    — Mary Ella Hastings July 6, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7 July 2026
Definition of distracted
Adjective
  • Our team reports that as people emerge from the life-or-death struggle for survival, which eclipsed all thought and numbed sensations, their trauma is transforming into a stunned grief.
    — James Gordon, Time, 14 July 2026
  • And when Cape Verde’s Deroy Duarte evened the score with a right footed shot from a difficult angle at the 59-minute mark, the stunned stadium went silent, minus two small spirited clots of Cape Verde fans in the East end zone seats.
    — Michelle Kaufman, Miami Herald, 13 July 2026
Definition of stunned
Adjective
  • People with heat exhaustion typically feel dizzy, start sweating profusely, have a fast pulse and can feel sick.
    — Claire Cameron, Scientific American, 2 July 2026
  • The 77-year-old previously expressed feeling dizzy on stage and cut the opening performance short.
    — Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, 1 July 2026
Definition of dizzy

Browse Nearby Words

punch
punch-drunk
punched
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Cite this Entry

“Punch-drunk.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/punch-drunk. Accessed 18 Jul. 2026.

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