How to Use sucker punch in a Sentence
sucker punch
verb-
His rivals have skipped right past the open-palm slap and moved right to the sucker punch.
—Time, 25 Aug. 2023
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The stock market crash of 1929 hit the nation like a sucker punch.
—Paul Vachon, Detroit Free Press, 27 Dec. 2021
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Being the one who was laid off can feel like a sucker punch.
—Dede Henley, Forbes, 11 Feb. 2024
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It sucker punched me in the kidneys and back with no mercy!
—Nardine Saad, Los Angeles Times, 2 Feb. 2024
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Fast forward a week and the drama of Paul’s sucker punch was gone.
—Chris Chase, For The Win, 14 Mar. 2018
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This is when Underwood, 60, stood up and threw a sucker punch to the body politic.
—Dan Barry, BostonGlobe.com, 10 July 2022
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The woman, who now has two black eyes, said the attack began when one of the men in the group sucker punched her.
—Fox News, 25 July 2019
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Hopefully, the goon in the teal shorts who went for a sucker punch to the back of the head gets reprimanded very soon.
—Khadrice Rollins, SI.com, 19 June 2019
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And then a series of events felt like a sucker punch, leaving me gasping for air.
—Lakeisha Fleming, CNN, 20 May 2018
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Though the evening doesn't quite go as planned, the gang consoles each other at home, where Jess gets her revenge on Nick for the sucker punch.
—Nicole Briese, Peoplemag, 5 Oct. 2022
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It’s a sucker punch that has worked for teenagers and autocrats alike for millennia.
—Philip Elliott, Time, 17 June 2021
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The video of the attack shows a boy sucker punching another boy, who is then struck by a third person standing out of frame.
—Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 27 Sep. 2019
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Having led the game until the 97th minute conceding an equaliser felt like a sucker punch.
—Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2023
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The Delta surge — a sucker punch to the gut just as freedom seemed near — has inflamed the ambient sense of powerlessness.
—William Falk, The Week, 14 Aug. 2021
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Dinner commences with a lavish sucker punch in the form of a nori tostada, topped with spiny lobster, uni and Kaluga caviar.
—Cesar Hernandez, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 Apr. 2023
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In a purplish shade of bruise, with smirks and implications, taunts and sucker punches.
—Brian Gresko, Longreads, 12 June 2018
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With China currently fighting its biggest Covid wave since Wuhan 2020, the crash felt like a sucker punch.
—Jessie Yeung, CNN, 23 Mar. 2022
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Police in the city are also searching for the suspect seen in a video who appeared to sucker punch a 55-year-old Asian woman in Chinatown.
—Fox News, 1 June 2021
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For people like me who have been diagnosed with ALS, the rejection landed like a sucker punch.
—Bernard Zipprich, STAT, 24 Apr. 2022
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The rapper was allegedly sucker punched from behind and then kicked and punched by other assailants.
—Monique O. Madan, Alex Harris, Carli Teproff and Rebecca Ellis, miamiherald, 19 June 2018
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The boy’s family claimed that one day before the attack, the eighth-grader sought the help of his science teacher after being sucker punched in the head, the statement says.
—Nicole Acosta, Peoplemag, 15 Sep. 2023
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The briefings spanned three deadly surges in San Antonio: the summer of 2020, the winter months, and the sucker punch from the virus’ delta variant that began in July this year.
—Bruce Selcraig, San Antonio Express-News, 5 Nov. 2021
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This was in evidence at no greater time than Thursday night’s conceding of a sucker punch away goal against Atletico Madrid.
—SI.com, 27 Apr. 2018
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In the surveillance video, a man in his 80s is seen standing next to a building when he is approached by another man who appears to sucker punch him.
—Fox News, 9 June 2022
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England arguably had the best of the chances but weren't clinical enough in front of goal, only to suffer a sucker punch when France were awarded a soft penalty for handball.
—SI.com, 19 June 2019
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But somewhere in the middle of each date, Frank would turn confrontational and sucker punch me with some sadistic comment or question out of left field.
—Dave Stukas, latimes.com, 29 June 2018
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Moments later, an older man came up from behind and sucker punched her in the head, demanding her cellphone.
—Chicago Tribune Staff, chicagotribune.com, 23 Aug. 2019
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The second is the walloping hook, which hits like a sucker punch when juxtaposed with the minimal track -- the third, more low-key star that creates the foundation for the other two to shine.
—Billboard Staff, Billboard, 27 June 2019
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The emotional equivalent of a sucker punch to the gut caught me totally off-guard and I was floored by an intense wave of grief, shock, anxiety and despair.
—Sarah Graham, refinery29.com, 10 Mar. 2020
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But the real sucker punch came when one protester branded me a pedophile, pornographer and groomer of children.
—Martha Hickson, CNN, 31 Oct. 2022
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sucker punch.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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