PRACTICAL JOKE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does practical joke mean? 

• PRACTICAL JOKE (noun)
  The noun PRACTICAL JOKE has 1 sense:

1. a prank or trick played on a person (especially one intended to make the victim appear foolish)

  Familiarity information: PRACTICAL JOKE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRACTICAL JOKE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A prank or trick played on a person (especially one intended to make the victim appear foolish)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("practical joke" is a kind of...):

antic; caper; joke; prank; put-on; trick (a ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "practical joke"):

April fool (a practical joke or trick played on the first day of April)

hotfoot (a practical joke that involves inserting a match surreptitiously between the sole and upper of the victim's shoe and then lighting it)

rag (a boisterous practical joke (especially by college students))

snipe hunt (an elaborate practical joke in which the unsuspecting victim hunts a snipe and is typically left in the dark holding a bag and waiting for the snipe to run into it)

 Context examples 

My first idea was that I had been the victim of some absurd practical joke.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But this is not a practical joke.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She answered that it was some senseless practical joke, and that I should not take any notice of it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

‘Some preposterous practical joke,’ said he. ‘What have I to do with sundials and papers?

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I repeat that there is no practical joke here, but that we are investigating a serious crime.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am sure, sir, it was only my practical joke.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But if this were the practical joke of some students from the dissecting-rooms, it would be as easy for them to send two odd ears as a pair.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“It was a joke, my good sir—a practical joke, nothing more,” he whined incessantly.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Miss Susan Cushing, living at Cross Street, Croydon, has been made the victim of what must be regarded as a peculiarly revolting practical joke unless some more sinister meaning should prove to be attached to the incident.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)