as in dazed
suffering from mental confusion
punch-drunk from having stayed up all night, she struggled through the exam
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Recent Examples of punch-drunk
That’s a bigger punchline than a punch-drunk Russian robot.
—
Newsweek Staff,
MSNBC Newsweek,
13 Nov. 2025
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
What’s going on is that the movie is getting punch-drunk.
—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
12 Mar. 2023
Newsweek Staff,
MSNBC Newsweek,
13 Nov. 2025
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
What’s going on is that the movie is getting punch-drunk.
—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
12 Mar. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for punch-drunk
Adjective
-
Humans of all ages, in fact, stare dazed into glowing screens.
-
Rapkin, truth be told, looked a little dazed.
Adjective
-
At the risk of sounding less like a columnist and more like a bewildered bystander … what the heck happened?
-
Urged by a call from Hugo to destroy her phone and flee Kansas City fast, before WARDEX can get to her, Margaret also hits the road, accompanied initially by a bewildered Jackson.
Adjective
-
But then, the writer himself might get confused about which is which.
-
For example, a lot of fans were a bit confused on Friday after watching Miguel Almiron be sent off in the first half of Paraguay’s win against Turkey.
Adjective
-
The proper fit will ensure that your pet remains comfortable and doesn’t become distracted by efforts to remove the collar.
-
The stadium, packed to the brim with more than 82,000 fans, reverberated with stunned murmurs as Morocco’s Ismael Saibari snuck behind a distracted Brazil defense and chipped home a beautiful goal over goalkeeper Alisson Becker’s head to open the scoring in the 22nd minute.
Adjective
-
Europeans, in particular, have been flooding social media with stunned reactions to the salad dressing.
-
After the worst outing of his nine-year major-league career, Freddy Peralta walked off the mound at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday night with a stunned look on his face.
Adjective
-
Then came illness on a boiling-hot day, which left him dizzy and depleted of energy.
-
During the day's exploring, employ the buddy system and look out for signs of heat illness like feeling dizzy, experiencing nausea or muscle cramps and sweating with cool and clammy skin.
Cite this Entry
“Punch-drunk.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/punch-drunk. Accessed 26 Jun. 2026.
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