Talk:punch the clock

RFV discussion
Verb. Sole sense given: "To come into view."

No OneLook dictionary has this. I am not familiar with this exact lemma either as a NISoP term or as an idiom. DCDuring TALK 19:43, 28 October 2010 (UTC)


 * doesn't show this sense SFAICT, but it shows a few meanings that I'd consider idiomatic (though we're missing some senses at [[punch]], so it's hard to be sure). To wit, it's sometimes used to mean roughly "clock in", i.e. to use a device that shows that you've arrived at a place at a time, though the sense is a bit more general than that, because night-watchmen also punch the clock to indicate that they're still awake and alert (so the effect is more like "checking in", I think: it seems to be less for after-the-fact proof of presence than for at-the-time indication that headquarters doesn't need to send someone to check on you, though probably it serves both purposes). And I see some uses in chess contexts; see [[w:Game clock]]. —Ruakh TALK 19:59, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
 * This is one of those expressions which I have trouble seeing as idiomatic because of the figurative sense of punch: and the common meaning of clock:. A sense of "punch" like that is in MWOnline. Other dictionaries have "to operate a device by a blow or as if by a blow". Learner's dictionaries have more concretely worded related definitions specifying only keys, keyboards, and keypads as the devices being operated. I suppose that, if we think of our users as only being familiar with learner-level definitions, then this would be more than the some of those parts. DCDuring TALK 23:57, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
 * As I said, [[punch]] is missing some senses. I wasn't aware that "register the time of one's presence on (a tamper-resistant recording system)" was such a sense, but if you say it is, or (better yet) if you add and cite it, then that definitely changes things. —Ruakh TALK 00:05, 29 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I was trying to generalize from the time-clock sense. That seems too hard to attest. I have added three device-operation senses with different types of objects. I hope that is good enough. DCDuring TALK 01:04, 29 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Punch and clock are so general that I couldn't see this meaning readily derived. DAVilla 18:31, 30 October 2010 (UTC)
 * There is a book of ieioms titled Punching the Clock. Subliminable 10:31, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

RFV failed, entry deleted, since DCDuring seems to feel that the more usual senses are SOP. (Otherwise I'd have just changed the def to .) But if anyone wants to add the more usual senses, please be my guest, with the understanding that they might get listed at WT:RFD. —Ruakh TALK 04:08, 1 February 2011 (UTC)