▪ I. funny, n.
(ˈfʌnɪ)
[perh. f. next adj.]
A narrow, clinker-built pleasure-boat for a pair of sculls. Also loosely, any light boat.
| 1799 Caldron or Follies Camb. 9 While others woo The well-oar'd funney or the slim canoo. 1808 Ann. Reg. 109 A young couple..took a sail in a funny off Fulham. 1843 Atkinson in Zoologist I. 293, I was in a ‘funny’—as the small boats at Cambridge are called. 1870 G. W. Dasent Annals Eventful Life (ed. 4) I. 140 The funnies, cutters, wherries..that thronged the river daily. |
▪ II. funny, a. and n. pl.
(ˈfʌnɪ)
[f. fun n. + -y1.]
A. adj.
1. a. Affording fun, mirth-producing, comical, facetious.
| 1756 W. Toldervy Two Orphans II. 151 Tom Heartley and Richmond said a great many funny things. 1762 Foote Orators i. i, Is it damn'd funny and comical? 1787 Burns Halloween xxviii, Unco tales, an' funnie jokes. 1827 De Quincey Murder Wks. 1862 IV. 22 He became very sociable and funny. 1849 Thackeray Pendennis xiii, Popping in his little funny head. |
| absol. 1820 Praed Eve of Battle 297 A mixture of the grave and funny. |
b. funny business, action (on the part of a clown or actor) intended to excite laughter; hence, jesting, nonsense; also slang, fooling or monkeying about; deceitful or underhand practices; similarly funny stuff, funny dope; funny column, funny paper, a (section of a) newspaper containing humorous matter or illustrations. orig. U.S.
| 1860 W. Hancock Emigrant's Five Years Free States Amer. iv. 93 The ‘funny’ column of any American journal. 1874 in L. Hearn Amer. Miscellany (1924) I. 20 The said Giglampz is not a funny paper. 1888 E. W. Nye Baled Hay 38 There was no funny business in his nature. 1890 Century Mag. Dec. 303 She even ventured on the funny column, for it was not Sunday. 1891 E. S. Ellis Check No. 2134 xiv. 93, I hope we'll get through without any more funny business. 1915 Froëst & Dilnot Crime Club x, The blue barrel of a revolver showed in the electric light. ‘No funny business!’ he warned them. ‘You guys can't play it on me.’ Ibid. xii, Especially if you try to put any of the funny dope over on me. 1930 London Mercury Feb. 324 He'll be out and about in a fortnight. Till then we will visit him together—and no funny stuff! 1936 ‘I. Hay’ Housemaster xv. 191 She seemed to be labouring under the idea that he, Victor, was trying to start some funny business with her. 1946 Wodehouse Money in Bank xii. 105 He is far too scared of our hostess to try any funny stuff on her. 1960 O. Manning Great Fortune iii. xviii. 210 Our permits..are issued on the understanding that we do not get mixed up in any funny business. 1968 Globe & Mail Mag. (Toronto) 13 Jan. 15/3 Despite an early apprenticeship to the funny papers McArthur was a subtle humorist. 1971 D. Potter Brit. Eliz. Stamps iii. 44, 1968 was even quieter. Only four sets, no strange se-tenant strips or funny business. |
2. a. Curious, queer, odd, strange. colloq.
| 1806 Metcalfe in Owen Wellesley's Desp. 809 This study to decrease our influence is funny. I cannot understand it. 1838 James Robber i, That was a funny slip of mine. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xix, ‘What funny things you are making’..‘I'm trying to write to my poor old woman.’ 1855 Ld. Houghton in Life (1891) I. xi. 527 Lady Ellesmere was very funny about Mrs. Gaskell, wanting very much to see her, and yet quite shy about it. 1889 N.W. Linc. Gloss. (ed. 2) s.v., ‘To keap fun'rals waaitin' time efter time is a straange funny waay for a parson to go on.’ |
b. funny-peculiar, a colloquialism introduced to distinguish sense 2 from sense 1 (funny-ha-ha), the two antithetic expressions freq. appearing together.
| 1938 ‘I. Hay’ Housemaster iii. 78 Chris. That's funny. Button. What do you mean, funny? Funny-peculiar, or funny ha-ha? 1942 Horizon July 69 He says, ‘Funny-haha or funny-peculiar?’ and I says, ‘Funny-peculiar.’ 1946 S. Gibbons Westwood vii. 95 You said her conscience forced her into being a you-know-what. It sounds awfully funny-peculiar. 1955 M. McCarthy Charmed Life (1956) iii. 58 His art-school training rendered him funny ha-ha to the cognoscenti. 1959 J. Verney Friday's Tunnel xxv. 227 John Gubbins leant forward, smiling in a funny-peculiar not funny-ha-ha way. 1965 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Apr. 281/3 Whether it is also amusing or merely funny-peculiar will depend upon the reader. 1970 ‘D. Shannon’ Unexpected Death (1971) ii. 24 He thought the blonde was rather funny..in the sense of funny-peculiar. |
† 3. slang. Tipsy. Obs.
| 1756 W. Toldervy Two Orphans I. 62 More brandy was drank, and, Tom Throw beginning to be what is called funny, the house was full of uproar and confusion. |
4. Comb., as funny-looking adj.; funny-bone, the popular name for that part of the elbow over which the ulnar nerve passes, from the peculiar sensation experienced when it is struck; also fig.; funny-face, a joc. and colloq. form of address; funny farm slang, a mental hospital; funny-man, a professional jester; funny party Naut., a ship's concert party.
| 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg., Bloudie Jacke, And they smack, and they thwack, Till your ‘*funny bones’ crack. 1867 Pall Mall G. 30 Jan. 4 It is like rapping a man..over the funny-bone. 1881 Blackmore Christowell xv, Even the fiddlers three..worked their funny-bones more gently. 1902 Daily Chron. 12 June 3/3 Two principal figures and a few carefully careless scratches—that is all Mr. Raven-Hill uses in the pointing of his joke, but he hits the universal funny-bone with his pencil. 1965 G. McInnes Road to Gundagai x. 161 Kennedy..hit our funny-bones because he was a man who used long words with an extremely sober face. |
| 1927 I. Gershwin (song title) *Funny face. 1930 Sayers & ‘Eustace’ Documents in Case 38 Ever and ever yours, funny-face, old dear. 1943 A. Christie Moving Finger v. 52 ‘It's all right, funny face,’ I said. 1963 J. N. Harris Weird World Wes Beattie v. 61 Before Baldwin Ogilvy agrees to locking his client away in the *funny farm, he might like to investigate the whole bang shoot. 1969 E. Ambler Intercom Conspiracy (1970) ix. 173 Intercom was described as ‘the Batman of the funny-farm set’ and its editor as ‘the Lone Ranger of the lunatic fringe’. |
| 1895 M. E. Francis Frieze & Fustian 283 ‘Yon's a *funny-lookin' lass. Let's chase her!’ |
| 1861 Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 119 What I've earn'd as clown, or the *funnyman, with a party of acrobats. |
| 1911 ‘Guns’ & ‘Theeluker’ Middle Watch Musings 137 Nearly every ship has a ‘*funny’ party. 1917 ‘Taffrail’ Sub vii. 178 Once a year came the squadron regatta and sports, while at intervals our ‘Funny Party’, or pierrot troupe, gave an entertainment. |
B. n. pl. Comic illustrations, etc.; spec. comic strips, or the section of a newspaper devoted to these (D.A.). Hence, funny persons, books, etc.; jokes. rare in sing. orig. U.S.
| 1852 Lantern (N.Y.) II. 114/1 Keeping our dear public advised of all operations in the ‘Funnies’. 1920 C. Sandburg Smoke & Steel 33 About the funnies in the papers. 1922 ― Slabs of Sunburnt West 35 Turning among headlines, date lines, funnies, ads. 1925 A. Huxley Those Barren Leaves i. i. 8 The funnies and the fuzzy-wuzzies—in a word, the artists. 1936 Wodehouse Laughing Gas xxvi. 272 We've only read the movie section and the funnies. 1941 Belloc Silence of Sea v. 33 What some modern funnies call ‘wish-fulfilment’. 1952 in Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang (1960) 205/2 Cut the funnies an' git a can-opener. 1959 Punch 30 Dec. 682/2 Makers of pantomimes engaged the ripest music-hall funnies they could find. 1961 John o' London's 14 Sept. 307/1 The best bet would have been to ship this Mexican funny [sc. a film] straight out on circuit. 1961 ‘B. Wells’ Day Earth caught Fire viii. 118 No funnies, Dave. Something's going on. 1970 New Yorker 17 Oct. 148/2, I hear he's a lawyer now, restricted, I suppose, to sneaking in a funny now and then in his summation to the jury. |
Hence ˈfunnily adv., in a funny manner; ˈfunniness, the quality or state of being funny; a funny saying or joke. Also ˈfunnyism nonce-wd., a joke.
| 1814 Lady Granville Lett. 18 Nov. (1894) I. 51 [He] says she..talks so funnily and sweetly. 1839 C. Fox Mem. Old Friends (1882) 37 His stories and funnyisms of all descriptions. 1856 Ld. Cockburn Mem. 317 note, It was funnily done; which was not always the case, for it was often with bitter gravity. 1857 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. I. xi. 57, I did hear one or two members..make a kind of school-boy titter at the funniness of a man's not being seconded. 1865 Daily Tel. 8 Dec. 4/6 Marching..to the sound of their own..irrepressible funninesses. 1882 J. Brown Horæ Subs. Ser. iii. 35 A man..whose absolute levity and funniness became ponderous. |
Add: [A.] [2.] c. funny money colloq. (orig. U.S.), money which for some reason is not what it seems: spec. (a) currency which has been devalued by inflation; (b) counterfeit currency; (c) financial assets which have been created or amassed by incomprehensible or unscrupulous accounting; also, a ridiculously large amount of money.
| 1938 in Amer. Speech XIII. 237/1 Nebraska needs no spurious coins, which add to the cost of living in sales tax states. Funny Money buys nothing but increased burdens of government. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §467/3 Counterfeit money. Bad dough,..funny money. 1948 N.Y. Herald Tribune 8 July 16/2 Ever since the last days of the war the German mark has been so greatly inflated that it has been ridiculed..as ‘funny money’. 1962 Time 29 June 26/1 The Depression-born, woolly-minded, funny-money party that calls itself Social Credit. 1972 Science 25 Aug. 683/2 Poland now holds approximately $351 million worth of Polish zlotys in U.S.-owned counterpart funds. These are known as ‘wheat money’.., or as ‘funny money’ because, while they can be spent through congressional authorization, they do not deplete the domestic federal budget. 1986 T. Barling Smoke ii. 55 And Sadler's got a name for asset-stripping, gutting sick companies for quick profits. It's been whispered Tommy Troy's pulled himself a funny-money man. 1989 Observer (Colour Suppl.) 23 Apr. 37/1 It's the Lloyd's Building, and it rises like an exhalation from a City of funny money where..yobs who say ‘Yah’..transmit notional fortunes round the globe. |
▪ III. funny, v. Sc.
(ˈfʌnɪ)
[mod. form of fundy, found v.5]
intr. To become stiff with cold, to be benumbed. Hence ˈfunnied ppl. a.
| 1721 Kelly Sc. Prov. 52 An eating Horse never funnied. 1785 Jrnl. fr. Lond. 3 in Poems Buchan Dial., The wile limmer was sae dozen'd an' funied wi' cauld. 1845 Whistle-Binkie (Scot. Songs) Ser. iii. (1890) I. 418 The funneit tod cam forth. |