straight-face test
- noun
- Informal
:
prueba de cara seria
- I think the 911 calls didn't pass the straight face test either.
Examples
-
During the comedy show, the actors had to take the straight-face test by delivering their lines without laughing.
-
I had always assumed that they assign the highest price that they believe they can submit to insurers without laughing out loud—the so-called "straight face test."
Academic text (2003) -
doesn't pass the straight-face test.
Blog text (12) -
In our improv class, we had a straight-face test where we had to stay serious while our friends told jokes.
-
She passed the straight-face test effortlessly, even when her friend pretended to trip and fall.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
straight-face + test
The phrase can be parsed compositionally as 'straight' + 'face' + 'test' — i.e. a test of keeping a 'straight face' — but this depends on knowing the conventional collocation 'keep/keep a straight face' meaning to suppress amusement. Because the key meaning rests on a somewhat idiomatic collocation rather than purely literal senses of 'straight' and 'face', a B1 learner who knows the separate words may only partially infer the exact sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
Straight-face test comes from the simple idea of keeping a straight face, not smiling, when someone says something funny. The 'test' is a quick check of whether you can stay 'serious', so the phrase now means a situation that measures your ability to keep a serious expression.