dead pan

comparative more dead pan · superlative most dead pan

1. alternativeAlternative form of deadpan.

   He was happy to acknowledge the outstanding ovation with his dead pan face and speak in his unique French Canadian accent.

   2008, Richard Joseph O'Prey, Recollections in Tranquility, page 199

   2 more examples

   This master comedian of dead pan delivery, perfect timing and the supreme usage of the pause to milk the audience laughter, actually started in vaudeville as a “class act” with his playing the violin and a partner as a pianist.

   2005, Eddie Garrett, I Saw Stars in the 40's and 50's, page 26

   I can't imagine that Jesus could have inspired and led crowds of people with a serious dead pan expression; it is more likely he had a sense of humor, and endless love for people.

   2014, Michele Ziemke, Confessions of a Lukewarm Christian, page 14

comparative more dead pan · superlative most dead pan

1. alternativeAlternative form of deadpan.

   Here a young man, perhaps sixteen, is sitting with his back to the rock among some ferns playing a guitar, dead pan.

   1995, William Carlos Williams, Christopher MacGowan, Paterson

   2 more examples

   He had a long hang-dog sort of face and a cropped hair style that he claimed, dead pan, was a relic of his days at West Point.

   2012, Jessica Stirling, The Blue Evening Gone

   'I thought it was to drink. It wasn't until I sobered up and returned that I realized why I belong here. Umm . . . what were you going to do? I mean if I took even longer to return?' 'Become professors,' she said dead pan.

   2012, Roger Lhooms, Dweller, page 593

plural dead pans

1. alternativeAlternative form of deadpan.

   At the lower levels men do not fight calmly and they are not reassured by commanders affecting the manner of an undertaker or the dead pan of a poker player.

   2000, S. L. A. Marshall, Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command, page 139

   2 more examples

   Allen's brilliant piece tells, in dead pan, the story of a trio of crackpot scientists who are seeking a remedy for the embarrassing and dangerous human problem of choking on food in public restaurants.

   2014, D. W. Rajecki, Comparing Behavior: Studying Man Studying Animals

   Keaton's face ranked almost with Lincoln's as an early American archetype; it was haunting, handsome, almost beautiful, yet it was irreducibly funny. No other comedian could do as much with the dead pan.

   2015, James L. Neibaur, Arbuckle and Keaton, page 20

present singular third person dead pans · participle present dead panning · participle past dead panned · past dead panned

1. alternativeAlternative form of deadpan.

   "Well, that explains everything," Zippy dead panned.

   2004, Lisa Ray Turner, The Maybe Saint, page 121

   2 more examples

   “It's a psychic, capable of spying, using out-of-body experiences, stuff like that,” Van Pelt dead panned.

   2003, Walker O'Brien, The Empire of the Dead, page 81

   This is a picture of me delivering the punch line. I violated one of my own basic rules by failing to "dead pan."

   2007, James F. Gill, Speaking of Gill: Insights into Public Speaking, page 28