dead pan

dead pan (comparative more dead pan, superlative most dead pan)

1. Alternative form of deadpan
   • 2005, Eddie Garrett, I Saw Stars in the 40's and 50's, page 26:

     This master comedian of dead pan delivery, perfect timing and the supreme usage of the pause to milk the audience laughter, actually started in vaudeville as a “class act” with his playing the violin and a partner as a pianist.

   • 2008, Richard Joseph O'Prey, Recollections in Tranquility, page 199:

     He was happy to acknowledge the outstanding ovation with his dead pan face and speak in his unique French Canadian accent.

   • 2014, Michele Ziemke, Confessions of a Lukewarm Christian, page 14:

     I can't imagine that Jesus could have inspired and led crowds of people with a serious dead pan expression; it is more likely he had a sense of humor, and endless love for people.

dead pan (comparative more dead pan, superlative most dead pan)

1. Alternative form of deadpan
   • 1995, William Carlos Williams, Christopher MacGowan, Paterson:

     Here a young man, perhaps sixteen, is sitting with his back to the rock among some ferns playing a guitar, dead pan.

   • 2012, Jessica Stirling, The Blue Evening Gone:

     He had a long hang-dog sort of face and a cropped hair style that he claimed, dead pan, was a relic of his days at West Point.

   • 2012, Roger Lhooms, Dweller, page 593:

     'I thought it was to drink. It wasn't until I sobered up and returned that I realized why I belong here. Umm . . . what were you going to do? I mean if I took even longer to return?' 'Become professors,' she said dead pan.

dead pan (plural dead pans)

1. Alternative form of deadpan
   • 2000, S. L. A. Marshall, Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command, page 139:

     At the lower levels men do not fight calmly and they are not reassured by commanders affecting the manner of an undertaker or the dead pan of a poker player.

   • 2014, D. W. Rajecki, Comparing Behavior: Studying Man Studying Animals:

     Allen's brilliant piece tells, in dead pan, the story of a trio of crackpot scientists who are seeking a remedy for the embarrassing and dangerous human problem of choking on food in public restaurants.

   • 2015, James L. Neibaur, Arbuckle and Keaton, page 20:

     Keaton's face ranked almost with Lincoln's as an early American archetype; it was haunting, handsome, almost beautiful, yet it was irreducibly funny. No other comedian could do as much with the dead pan.

dead pan (third-person singular simple present dead pans, present participle dead panning, simple past and past participle dead panned)

1. Alternative form of deadpan
   • 2003, Walker O'Brien, The Empire of the Dead, page 81:

     “It's a psychic, capable of spying, using out-of-body experiences, stuff like that,” Van Pelt dead panned.

   • 2004, Lisa Ray Turner, The Maybe Saint, page 121:

     "Well, that explains everything," Zippy dead panned.

   • 2007, James F. Gill, Speaking of Gill: Insights into Public Speaking, page 28:

     This is a picture of me delivering the punch line. I violated one of my own basic rules by failing to "dead pan."

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