Meanings
present singular third person kids on the square · participle present kidding on the square · participle past kidded on the square · past kidded on the square
- To be joking, but at the same time really mean it.
"I'm kiddin' on the square," said Hanks.
1907, Alfred Damon Runyon, “The Defense of Strikerville”, in McClure's Magazine, volume 28, page 3792 more examples
So I always knew what Pierce meant, in a kidding-on-the-square kind of way.
1977, Dan Rather, Mickey Herskowitz, The Camera Never Blinks, →ISBN, page 66"At least he likes historical characters," I kidded on the square. No one laughed so I went to work recruiting other directors.
2006, Stuart Ostrow, Present at the Creation, →ISBN, page 46Synonyms: ha ha only serious
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo be joking, but at the same time really mean it.
Origin
Dates back to the early 20th century. Later popularized by Mose Allison in his 1983 song "Kidding on the Square" on the album Middle Class White Boy (described in the liner notes as "joking with serious intent") and later by Al Franken describing the negative reaction of Paul Wolfowitz to one of his jokes in the 2003 book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
kid on the square. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kid%20on%20the%20square
“kid on the square.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kid%20on%20the%20square. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kid on the square,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kid%20on%20the%20square.
Source: kid on the square on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.