PUNS
the usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound.
A pun is a figure of speech which consists of a deliberate confusion of similar words or phrases for rhetorical effect, whether humorous or serious. A pun can rely on the assumed equivalency of multiple similar words (homonymy), of different shades of meaning of one word (polysemy), or of a literal meaning with a metaphor. Bad puns are often considered to be cheesy.
Walter Redfern (in Puns, Blackwell, London, 1984) succinctly said: "To pun is to treat homonyms as synonyms".
from Wikipedia
from English Talk list > Subject: FOR ALL YOU LEXOPHILES ( LOVERS OF WORDS ) > > 1. A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired. > > > 2. What's the definition of a will? (It's a dead giveaway). > > > 3. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. > > > 4. A backward poet writes inverse. > > > 5. In democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism it's your count > that votes. > > 6. She had a boyfriend with a wooden leg, but broke it off. > > 7. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion. > > 8. If you don't pay your exorcist you get repossessed. > > 9. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress. > > 10. Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat > minor. > > 11. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds. > > 12. The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered. > > 13. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum > Blownapart. > > 14. You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it. > > 15. Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN down under. > > 16. He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key. > > 17. Every calendar's days are numbered. > > 18. A lot of money is tainted. 'Taint yours and 'taint mine. > > 19. A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat. > > 20. He had a photographic memory which was never developed. > > 21. A plateau is a high form of flattery. > > 22. The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium > at large. > > 23. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end. > 24. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall. > > 25. Those who jump off a Paris bridge are in Seine. > > 26. When an actress saw her first strands of gray hair she thought she'd > dye. > > 27. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis. > > 28. Santa's helpers are subordinate Clauses. > > 29. Acupuncture is a jab well done. > > 30. Marathon runners with bad footwear suffer the agony of defeat. MORE PUNS Energizer Bunny arrested -- charged with battery. A pessimist's blood type is b-negative. Practice safe eating -- use condiments. A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother. Shotgun wedding: wife or death. I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded. If electricity comes from electrons... does that mean that morality comes from morons? A hangover is the wrath of grapes. Corduroy pillows are making headlines. Is a book on voyeurism a peeping tome? Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play. Banning the bra was a big flop. Sea captains don't like crew cuts. Does the name Pavlov ring a bell? Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. A gossip is someone with a sense of rumor. Without geometry, life is pointless. When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination. Condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion. Reading while sunbathing makes you well-red. When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I. Alarms: What an octopus is. Crick:: The sound that a Japanese camera makes. Dockyard: A physician's garden. Khakis: What you need to start the car in Boston . Oboe: An English tramp. Pasteurize: Too far to see. Propaganda: A gentlemanly goose. Toboggan: Why we go to an auction. Marriage is the mourning after the knot before.Example: