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Definition 2025
straight_man
straight man
English
Noun
straight man (plural straight men)
- Used other than as an idiom: see straight, man.
- the committee consisted of two lesbians and a straight man
- (idiomatic) A member (of either gender) of a team of comic performers who plays a supporting role by helping to set up jokes and punch lines through engaging in preparatory dialog with the principal comedian; a foil who plays such a role in theatrical comedy.
- For many years Bud Abbott served brilliantly as Lou Costello's deadpan straight man.
- 2010, Caroline Graham, A Ghost in the Machine, Hachette UK (ISBN 9780755373222)
- Recently he had successfully concluded a case featuring a poet who wore only latex, lived on liquorice allsorts and worshipped a horse she believed to be the reincarnation of Radclyffe Hall. And she was the straight man.
- 1982, The Ladies' Home Journal
- She was the straight man, he was the comedian, and their audience was "standing room ...