class clown
9
3.4
- noun
- /klæs klaʊn/
- Informal
:
payaso de clase
- During math class, Sarah made everyone laugh, showing her true talent as the class clown.
- class clown in school
- always the class clown
- role as class clown
So yeah, I think it was just the class clown.
- So yeah, I think it was just the class clown.
- You're labeled class clown in middle school and in high school.
- Now, lots of narcissistic folks get by on being sort of the cut up, the class clown, the Joker, the irreverent comic, the dark humorist.
- The reason I've been the class clown all my life, always laughing at the serious stuff.
- But neighborhood stuff, I, I was kind of the class clown in, in the, in the school.
- But just like how many women are class clowns growing up, there just seems to be fewer women who were attracted to that expression.
- And then that person becomes the football player, the wise ass, the class clown, the whatever the fuck.
- I actually looked at the class clown as I was sitting watching him going sit down.
Examples
-
When you were in school, were you the class clown?
-
Raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, he quickly earned the reputation as class clown at his high school.
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I was still a class clown, just a bit wild.
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So were you the class clown growing up?
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Oh, that guy's the class clown.
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LOUIS: At school, I was always trying to play the class clown.
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By this time, she was showing traces of being the funny young woman remembered by her schoolmates as the class clown.
Fiction book (2001) -
Students do not have to worry about favoritism from instructors or class clowns acting up in class.
Academic text (2010) -
Sibylle was known as the class clown and always had some witty observation to make about the principal's carnation tie or the teacher's nerves.
Blog text (4) -
Many were "class clowns" who seemed to revel in the laughter of their classmates despite incurring teachers' wrath.
Academic text (1991)
Synonyms
43
7.4
A person who acts in a silly way to make others laugh
24
4.1
A person who plays tricks on people to make them laugh
A person in a group who often makes others laugh with funny stories or actions
How Disruptive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning ('a student who amuses or behaves like a clown in class') is directly and transparently derived from combining 'class' (a group of students) with 'clown' (a person who behaves foolishly or entertains). This straightforward noun+noun composition follows common English compounding patterns and is cross-linguistically analogous, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The term class clown paints a clear picture: a clown in the class telling jokes and doing silly tricks to make everyone laugh. So, it means 'a student who often makes classmates laugh and sometimes distracts the teacher'.