SUCKER PUNCHING Synonyms: 107 Similar Words

sucker punching

verb

present participle of sucker punch

as in knocking down

Related Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for sucker punching

Verb

Schiano ended up knocking down the field marker in his tantrum.

— Ryan Gaydos OutKick, FOXNews.com, 20 Sep. 2026
Charlotte history of knocking down old buildings Digital Realty is far from the first developer to tear down a historic site.

— Desiree Mathurin, Charlotte Observer, 2 Sep. 2026

Definition of knocking down

Verb

Leo Your ego clashes with others, often pushing you to prove a point impatiently and restlessly.

— Lisa Stardust, Vogue, 22 Sep. 2026
Goolsbee also noted that forecasters had spent more than a year pushing back the date when inflation was supposed to peak and start falling.

— Chloe Taylor,Sean Conlon, CNBC, 22 Sep. 2026

Definition of pushing

Verb

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, the weather service said thunderstorms were already dumping heavy rain across the region, with more rain on the horizon.

— Iris Kwok, Los Angeles Times, 25 Sep. 2026
An out-of-town attorney was abducted outside a Midtown Manhattan strip club and savagely beaten by four thieves who stole his Rolex watch and iPhone before dumping him in a New Jersey nature reserve, federal officials said Tuesday.

— Colin Mixson, New York Daily News, 22 Sep. 2026

Definition of dumping

Verb

Azaria was sentenced to 18 months in prison for killing Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, who was one of two men accused of stabbing another Israeli soldier in Hebron.

— Oren Liebermann, CNN Money, 20 Sep. 2026
Anthony, 19, was convicted more than a year after fatally stabbing Metcalf, 17, during a regional high school track meet at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, Texas, on April 2, 2025.

— James Cirrone, FOXNews.com, 19 Sep. 2026

Definition of stabbing

Verb

Instead of kicking another field goal later in the quarter, Whittingham went for it on fourth-and-1 from the Iowa 18 and Underwood's sneak was stopped.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 27 Sep. 2026
The backstory For most of my life, the Old Dutch Inn has been just a faint memory of kicking my legs from a bar stool, drinking a Shirley Temple next to my late grandmother, who would likely have been nursing a gin and tonic.

— Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Sep. 2026

Definition of kicking

Verb

Hilton has made a slew of campaign promises to lower the cost of living, including $3 gasoline, no taxes on income below $150,000 and lowering energy bills by slashing climate-friendly regulations imposed by Democrats.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 24 Sep. 2026
The crooks beat him savagely, at one point slashing him with a machete, while demanding his iPhone password, officials said.

— Colin Mixson, New York Daily News, 22 Sep. 2026

Definition of slashing

Verb

So, why now, halfway through the first take of the shoot, was Axl flailing his arm like a windmill with his jacket hurling around through space like a lasso?

— Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 15 Sep. 2026
Much of the time, you’re left to put up with untrained screen actors not knowing where to stand or look, or who don’t know not to block the camera’s view with flailing hands.

— Siddhant Adlakha, IndieWire, 9 Sep. 2026

Definition of flailing

Verb

Engineers could potentially use its switching behavior in high-performance capacitors.

— Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 26 Sep. 2026
Researchers writing in Harvard Business Review found that employees switch between applications roughly 1,200 times per day, consuming nearly 9% of the workweek in reorientation and context switching alone.

— Bryan Goode, Fortune, 26 Sep. 2026

Definition of switching

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.

Browse Nearby Words

sucker punches

sucker punching

suckers

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Sucker punching.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sucker%20punching. Accessed 30 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of sucker punching

verb

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

epistemic

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Popular in Wordplay

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

Popular

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

Games & Quizzes