"no show without Punch" meaning in English

See no show without Punch in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Etymology: A reference to the Punch puppet in a Punch and Judy show. Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} no show without Punch
  1. A show or endeavor cannot proceed without its star or main purpose.

Download JSON data for no show without Punch meaning in English (2.2kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "A reference to the Punch puppet in a Punch and Judy show.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "no show without Punch",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1975, Hospital & Health Services Review - Volume 71, page 391",
          "text": "The demand for computer installations and more accurate and effective information services grows and will continue to do so for years to come but, as there is no show without Punch, there can be no meaningful information service without accurate data collection.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991, John Waters, Jiving At The Crossroads",
          "text": "Outside, the music could have been little more than a low, muffled rumble, capable of penetrating nothing, certainly not the consciousnesses of the flush-faced Fianna Fáilers and their triumphant champion, or of spoiling their moment with its pointed accusations. This was their show, and there is no show without Punch.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Christopher Brookmyre, Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks, page 192",
          "text": "I was concerned I might be skirting just the wrong side of late and was relieved to see the main man only just on his way in too. No show without Punch, after all.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Eva Scott, Red Dust Dancer",
          "text": "“Of course I'm coming. No show without Punch.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A show or endeavor cannot proceed without its star or main purpose."
      ],
      "id": "en-no_show_without_Punch-en-phrase-gBjBCOBn",
      "links": [
        [
          "show",
          "show"
        ],
        [
          "endeavor",
          "endeavor"
        ],
        [
          "star",
          "star"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "no show without Punch"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "A reference to the Punch puppet in a Punch and Judy show.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "no show without Punch",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English eponyms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1975, Hospital & Health Services Review - Volume 71, page 391",
          "text": "The demand for computer installations and more accurate and effective information services grows and will continue to do so for years to come but, as there is no show without Punch, there can be no meaningful information service without accurate data collection.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991, John Waters, Jiving At The Crossroads",
          "text": "Outside, the music could have been little more than a low, muffled rumble, capable of penetrating nothing, certainly not the consciousnesses of the flush-faced Fianna Fáilers and their triumphant champion, or of spoiling their moment with its pointed accusations. This was their show, and there is no show without Punch.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Christopher Brookmyre, Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks, page 192",
          "text": "I was concerned I might be skirting just the wrong side of late and was relieved to see the main man only just on his way in too. No show without Punch, after all.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Eva Scott, Red Dust Dancer",
          "text": "“Of course I'm coming. No show without Punch.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A show or endeavor cannot proceed without its star or main purpose."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "show",
          "show"
        ],
        [
          "endeavor",
          "endeavor"
        ],
        [
          "star",
          "star"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "no show without Punch"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.