Punch
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( n.) An extension piece applied to the top of a pile; a dolly.
(2): ( n.) A tool, usually of steel, variously shaped at one end for different uses, and either solid, for stamping or for perforating holes in metallic plates and other substances, or hollow and sharpedged, for cutting out blanks, as for buttons, steel pens, jewelry, and the like; a die.
(3): ( n.) To perforate or stamp with an instrument by pressure, or a blow; as, to punch a hole; to punch ticket.
(4): ( v. t.) To thrust against; to poke; as, to punch one with the end of a stick or the elbow.
(5): ( n.) One of a breed of large, heavy draught horses; as, the Suffolk punch.
(6): ( n.) A short, fat fellow; anything short and thick.
(7): ( n.) The buffoon or harlequin of a puppet show.
(8): ( n.) A beverage composed of wine or distilled liquor, water (or milk), sugar, and the juice of lemon, with spice or mint; - specifically named from the kind of spirit used; as rum punch, claret punch, champagne punch, etc.
(9): ( n.) A thrust or blow.
(10): ( n.) A prop, as for the roof of a mine.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [2]
The name of the chief character in a well-known puppet show of Italian origin, and appropriated as the title of the leading English comic journal, which is accompanied with illustrations conceived in a humorous vein and conducted in satire, from a liberal Englishman's standpoint, of the follies and weaknesses of the leaders of public opinion and fashion in modern social life. It was started in 1841 under the editorship of Henry Mayhew and Mark Lemon; and the wittiest literary men of the time as well as the cleverest artists have contributed to its pages, enough to mention of the former Thackeray, Douglas Jerrold, and Tom Hood, and of the latter Doyle, Leech, Tenniel, Du Maurier, and Lindley Sambourne.
