sucker punch

verb

Updated on: 19 Apr 2018

Definition of sucker punch

transitive verb

: to punch (a person) suddenly without warning and often without apparent provocation

—

sucker punch

noun

See sucker punch defined for English-language learners

See sucker punch defined for kids

Examples of sucker punch in a Sentence

One of them sucker punched me.

Recent Examples of sucker punch from the Web

Nearly a year after killing a California father of five with one sucker punch, a 28-year-old man was sentenced on Tuesday to serve three to 10 years in a Nevada prison under the terms of a deal orchestrated by prosecutors, PEOPLE confirms.

— chris harris, PEOPLE.com, "Man Admits Killing Father-of-Five With Sucker Punch While Victim Was in Vegas for Bachelor Party," 12 Apr. 2018
Everton were dealt a sucker punch after 21 minutes when the Ireland midfielder capped off a superb 23-pass move to the delight of the travelling contingent.

— SI.com, "Burnley vs Everton Preview: Past Meeting, Form, Team News, Prediction & More," 2 Mar. 2018
The process is slow and painstaking, but midway through the film this plucky bunch of senior citizens lands a sucker punch by persuading Argentine judge Maria Servini to mount a legal challenge under international law.

— stephen dalton, The Hollywood Reporter, "'The Silence of Others': Film Review | Berlin 2018," 21 Feb. 2018
Until its bottom line takes a sucker punch, there’s no impetus for United to make any serious changes to this culture of customer disdain.

— christopher muther, BostonGlobe.com, "Why are people still flying United?," 16 Mar. 2018
Fast forward a week and the drama of Paul’s sucker punch was gone.

— chris chase, For The Win, "How the NBA's biggest stars fared in the NCAA tournament," 14 Mar. 2018
In an incident last September, Palmer’s arrest report says several witnesses saw Palmer sucker punch Harrell in the back of the head with two closed fists after Harrell told Palmer to get out of his yard.

— david j. neal, miamiherald, "He was accused of molesting a child. Then, he looked for revenge, cops say | Miami Herald," 8 Mar. 2018
Trump is a suburban sucker punch for Walker and Republicans.

— jason stein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Six takeaways from the upset in Wisconsin's 10th Senate District," 17 Jan. 2018
However, despite their concentrated stay in Barcelona's half, no clear openings were fashioned, and the hosts almost provided the ultimate sucker punch.

— SI.com, "Lionel Messi Scores 600th Career Goal as Barcelona Takes Huge Stride Towards Title," 4 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sucker punch.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.