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Glite Dictionary
Hertz donut

Hertz donut

9.9
A joke name for a spare tire given as a prank
  • noun
  • Informal
translation icon : donut Hertz
  • At the party, someone handed out a spare tire and called it a Hertz donut.

Examples

  • The mechanic made everyone laugh with his Hertz donut joke.

  • Have you ever tried a Hertz donut?

  • He offered his friend a Hertz donut as a prank after fixing the car.

  • I love the idea of a Hertz donut!

  • At the party, someone handed out a spare tire and called it a Hertz donut.

  • He offered his friend a Hertz donut as a lighthearted joke after fixing the car.

  • The mechanic made everyone laugh with his clever Hertz donut pun.

Synonyms

pun
vsHertz donut
89 4.8

A joke that uses the different meanings of a word or words that sound the same

is a specific joke about a food item or body fat using wordplay
spare tire
vsHertz donut
  • Offensive
3 4.9

Extra fat around the waist that looks like a round band

is a joking phrase that refers to that body fat by sound based humor

Surface Forms

Hertz donut singular
Hertz donuts plural

Morphology

Hertz + donut

This phrase is a humorous, phonetic pun that relies on cultural/phonological knowledge ('Hertz' ≈ 'hurts') and pragmatic inference rather than compositional semantics. Knowing the constituents 'Hertz' (a proper name or unit) and 'donut' (a sweet ring) does not allow a B1 learner to derive the intended joking meanings (pun on 'hurts, don't it?' or spare-tire metaphor), so the interpretation is unpredictable from the parts alone.

Etymology

Hertz donut comes from a simple joke: a donut is slang for a small spare tire and Hertz is a car company, and together the words sound like 'hurts, don't it?'. So people call a 'spare tire' or a fake pastry a Hertz donut as a playful pun.