How is a Daffynition Word Used?

Daffynition is an informal term for a playful reinterpretation of an existing word--usually a pun.

The term daffynition (a blend of the words daffy and definition) was popularized by the panelists on the comedy program I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, which has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the World Service since 1972. For the past 60 years, daffynitions have also appeared in the magazine Boy's Life.

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Pun: Definition and Examples in English

By Richard Nordquist

Examples and Observations

Making up daffynitions (which are then collected in the Uxbridge English Dictionary) is a game played on the BBC Radio 4 comedy quiz show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Here are some examples from the program:

• antelope, to run off with your mother’s sister
  
• boomerang, what you say to frighten a meringue
  
• brouhaha, a jolly tea party
  
• Carmelite, a half-hearted Buddhist
  
• coffee, someone who is coughed upon
  
• crackerjack, a device for lifting biscuits
  
• diphthong, to wash an undergarment
  
• extent, formerly a canvas home
  
• fecund, the one before fird
  
• gladiator, an unrepentant cannibal
  
• ho-hum, the sound made by a vibrating garden tool
  
• ignorant, to totally disregard an insect
  
• Jihad, the cry of a Fundamentalist cowboy
  
• kindred, fear of one's own family
  
• locus, to curse quietly
  
• maximum, a very large mother
  
• melancholy, a strangely shaped dog
  
• negligent, a man who wears lingerie
  
• oasis, a poker player's cry of delight
  
• pasteurize, too far to see
  
• posthumous, the art of delivering Greek food by mail
  
• reincarnation, to be born again as a tin of condensed milk
  
• relief, what trees do in spring
  
• scandal, footwear you should be ashamed of
  
• sentiment, the perfume he intended to buy
  
• shingle, Sean Connery's definition of a bachelor
  
• testicle, an amusing exam question
  
• trampoline, a cleansing fluid for tramps
  
• vigilante, a very observant aunt.
  
• whisky, a bit like a whisk
  
• zebra, the largest size of support garment

Richard Lederer: Johnny Hart, the creator of the comic strip B.C., has long been a master of the daffynition. Part of the prehistorically contemporary humor of B.C. are the installments that feature Wiley's Dictionary: abomination, what a well-allocated nuclear arsenal should consist of:

• asset, a small donkey
• detour, what you take to de museum
• hackneyed, why Joe Namath had to get out of football

Tony Augarde: Players choose (or are given) words for which they have to make humorous definitions. Often the definitions will use a pun (as in 'boomerang: what you say to frighten a meringue' or 'carrion: British comedy films') but sometimes they will be witty (as in 'alone: in bad company,' or 'cannibal: someone who goes to a restaurant and orders the waiter.'