Cat Puns

Welcome to the Punpedia entry on cat puns! 🐱🐈 Whether you’re trying to come up with a silly name for your poor little kitten, you’ve got a cat-themed party coming up, or whatever else, I hope you find this list useful 🙂

Note that this entry doesn’t include any big cat (lion, cheetah, jaguar, etc.) puns. They’ll get their own entry at some point.

Cat Puns List

Each item in this list describes a pun, or a set of puns which can be made by applying a rule. If you know of any puns about cats that we’re missing, please let us know in the comments at the end of this page! Without further ado, here’s the list of cat puns:

  • Cat: There are a couple of phrases/idioms that are based on the word “cat” itself: “A scaredy-cat” and “Playing cat and mouse” and “All cats are grey in the dark” and “The cat’s whiskers” and “Cat got your tongue?” and “Cat in the sack” and “Cool cat” and “Cool cat” and “Look at what the cat dragged in!” and “Raining cats and dogs” and “See which way the cat jumps” and “When the cat’s away, the mice will play” and “Curiosity killed the cat” and “Like a cat on a hot tin roof” and “They let the cat out of the bag” and “A fat cat
  • Got → Cat: As in “You’ve cat to be kidding (or kitten) me.” and “Cat it in one!” and “It’s cat me stumped” and “I haven’t cat all day” and “You’ve cat another thing coming”
  • Get → Cat: As in “Cat this show on the road” and “Don’t cat the wrong idea” and “We need to cat the upper hand” and “Let’s cat this under way”
  • Feeling → Feline: As in “I’m not feline well today.” and “A gut feline” and “Are you feline okay?” and “He’s got felines for him” and “Hurt felines” and “I’m feline like a million dollars!” and “I’ve got mixed felines about this” and “No hard felines” and “A sinking feline
  • *cat*: If a word contains the “cat” sound, we can make a silly cat pun: catapult, catalogue, catalyst, cataclysmic, cataracts, catastrophic, categorical, categories, categorical, categorisation, caterpillar, cattle, catfish, catwalk, scatter, evocative, communicative, certificates, provocative, intricately.
  • *cat*: If a word contains anything vaguely similar to the “cat” sound, we can sometimes make a very silly cat pun (you can also use hyphens to emphasise the “cat” part for extra corniness): apricat (apricot), boycatt (boycott), cattage (cottage), dicatomy (dichotomy), psycatic (psychotic), arcatecture, Connecticat, catlery (cutlery), biscats (biscuits), mar-cat-place, ar-cat-ype (archetype), supermarcat.
  • Caught → Cat: As in “I cat you red-handed!” and “Cat with your hand in the cookie jar”
  • Cut → Cat: As in “Cat and dried” and “A cat above the rest” and “Don’t cat corners” and “To cat a long story short” and “Cat and paste” and “Cat me some slack, will you?” and “Cat someone down to size” and “Cat the crap” and “To have your work cat out for you” and “Cat to the bone” and “Cat the funny stuff” and “It’s a cat through business” and “Don’t cat off your nose to spite your face” and “Measure twice, cat once”
  • Clause → Claws: As in “There is a claws in our legal agreement which allows me to make as many cat puns as I want.”
  • Bite: As in “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” and “Bite the big one” and “A bite to eat” and “Love bite” and “Bite someone’s head off” and “Bite back” and “Bite me”
  • Get in → Kitten: As in “Quick! Kitten the car!” and “The plane won’t kitten until noon.”
  • Cut in → Kitten: As in “It’s rude to just kitten and interrupt someone like that.”
  • Kitchen → Kitten: As in “Everything and the kitten sink”
  • Kidding → Kitten: As in “You’ve got to be kitten me.”
  • *fur*: If a word contains the “fur” sound (or similar), we can make silly cat puns: a-fur-mative, di-fur-ent, further, infurmation, offur, effurt, furget, furgotten, comfurt, suffur, furm (firm), furnish, furgive, comfurtable, confurm, furmly, Afurica, Oxfurd, furever, furniature, philosofur, furbidden, transfur, confurmation, diffur, furtile, furbid, confurence, confurred, uncom-fur-table, furgiven, furlorn (forelorn), confurm, furbade, confur, furnace, furocity, transfurmation, infur, infurence, defur, furthermore, furtively, furvently, cifur (cipher), furthest, biografur, affurm, furvent, furmentation, photografur, vocifurous, unfurled, afurism (aphorism), perifural (peripheral), chaufur (chauffeur).
  • Scratch: “Actually, scratch that – that’s a terrible idea now that I think about it.” and “We’ve only just scratched the surface” and “This work is not up to scratch” and “Start over from scratch
  • Kite → Cat: As in “I wanted to fly my cat but there wasn’t enough wind.”
  • ‘kay, nine → Canine: As in “‘kay, nine should be enough anyway.” (Cats have canines!)
  • Collar: “Blue/white collar workers” and “Hot under the collar
  • Tail: As in “To chase one’s tail” and “Heads or tails” and “Get off my tail!” and “Has the world by the tail” and “Can’t make heads or tails of it” and “With one’s tail between one’s legs” and “To work your tail off”
  • Tell → Tail: As in “Only time will tail” and “Tail me about it!” and “Tail the world” and “Tail it like it is” and “Lived to tail the tale” and “Don’t tail a soul” and “Kiss and tail” and “If I tail you, I’ll have to kill you” and “Show and tail
  • Tale → Tail: As in “Tattle tail” and “Old wive’s tail” and “A tell tail sign” and “Lived to tell the tail
  • Chase: As in “Chase around after” and “Cut to the chase” and “A wild-goose chase” and “Chasing rainbows” and “Chase down”
  • Breed: “Hatred breeds hatred” and “A dying breed” and “A rare breed” and “Familiarity breeds contempt”
  • Pure bread → Purebred: As in “They’re so unhealthy, they’ve got a diet that’s basically purebred.”
  • Flee → Flea: As in “The thief fleaed from the crime scene on foot.”
  • Fee → Flea: As in “Have you paid your annual fleas?”
  • Pause → Paws: “Let’s paws and reflect.”
  • For → Fur: “Fur the love of god!” and “Fur real?” and “A fur effort” and “Good-fur-nothing” and “A penny fur your thoughts” and “Bat fur the other side” and “Our fur the count” and “Spoiled fur choice” and “Worse fur wear” and “Can’t see the forest fur the trees” and “Cause fur alarm” and “Different strokes fur different folks” and “Dollar fur dollar” and “Fur what it’s worth” and “Fur instance, …” and “Fur the time being” and “Asking fur trouble” and “Taken fur granted” and “Too close fur comfort” and “Fish fur a compliment” and “Fur better or for worse” and “Fur crying out loud!” and “Fur good measure” and “Fur one thing, …” and “Fur the fun of it” and “Fur your information” and “A sight fur sore eyes”
  • Poor → Paw: “Oh you paw thing.”
  • Positively → Pawsitively: “Processed and red meats have been pawsitively linked to several common cancers.”
  • Position → Pawsition: “I’m not in a pawsition to comment on that.”
  • Possible → Pawssible: “That’s simply not pawssible!”
  • Possession → Pawsession: “Charged for pawsession of narcotics.”
  • Posture → Pawsture: “I need to pay more attention to my pawsture.”
  • Posh → Pawsh: “This party is too pawsh for me.”
  • Postulate → Pawstulate: “We can only pawstulate that he escaped via the window.”
  • Posterity → Pawsterity: “The names were recorded for pawsterity.”
  • Posthumously → Pawsthumously: “He was granted the nobel prize pawsthumously.”
  • *por* → *paw*: If a word contains the “por” sound (or similar) we can usually replace it with “paw” to make a silly cat pun: airpawt, appawled, appawntment, coupawns, dispropawtionately, depawtation, downpaw (downpour), depawted, expawted, impawted, impawtance, impawssibility, passpawt, pawtal, pawtability, pawtfolio, pawtion, pawtland, pawtray, pawtrayal, pawsterior, propawtionally, purpawted, self-pawtrait, repawter, unsuppawted, suppawter, transpawting.
  • Cat and mouse: This phrase refers to “a contrived action involving constant pursuit, near captures, and repeated escapes.”
  • *pet*: If a word contains the “pet” sound, it may work as a silly pet pun: competitive, competitor, petri dish, parapet, petrochemical, petrol, petticoat, pipet (pipette), repetitive.
  • Neutral → Neuter-al: As in “I don’t really have an opinion on this – I’m neuter-al.”
  • Per → Purr: As in “As purr our discussion” and “Three dollars purr kilo.”
  • Per-* → Purr-*: If a word begins with “per” (or “pur”, etc.) we can make an easy cat pun: purr-son (person), purrhaps, purriod, purrformance, purrsonal, purrsuade, purrspective, purrmission, purrmit, purrfect, purrcentage, purrception, purrmanent, purrformed, purrcieve, purrmitted, purrsist, purrformances, purrforming, purrpetutate, purrched, purrtinent, purrenial, purrsona, purrpetrator, purrky, purrfectionist, purrsonification, purrspiration, puuruse, purrplexing, purrfume, purrmutation, purrpose, purrple
  • *purr*: If a word contains anything that remotely resembles the “per” sound, a silly cat pun can usually be made: papurr (paper), purrticular, propurrty, oppurrtunity, empurror, uppurr (upper), sepurrate, whispurred, suppurr, purrotection (protection), purroduction (production), tempurr, purroperly (properly), purrsued, opurrations, newspapurr, prepurring, purrsuit, hypurrtext, purrchase, oppurrtunities, whispurr, prepurrations, tempurrary, tempurrature, purrchased, coppurr, purrse, inspurration, sepurration, papurrwork, corpurration, prospurrous, tempurrment, contempurrary, supurrstition, supurrnatural, peppurr, purrole, expurrt, purrl, supurrb, despurrately, propurrty, dispurrsed, supurrintendent, shepurrds, impurrtinent, slipppurry, exaspurrated, insepurrable, oppurating, transpurrtation, housekeepurr, cheapurr, oppurrational, corpurration, expurrimental, purrchase, supurrvision, purrental, dispurrse, purrport, apurrture, drapurry. There are many more cat puns of this form to be made. You can have a look at this list of “per” words to create your own.
  • Me ow*→ Meow*: As in “Cat puns freak meowt” and “They’re taking meowt for dinner on Tuesday.” and “It’s taking meowrs to complete this lab report.”
  • Now → Meow: As in “Bye-bye for meow!” and “Meow and again” and “Here and meow” and “Meow you’re talking!” and “Any minute meow
  • Wretch → Retch: A “wretch” is an unfortunate, unhappy or despicable person. To “retch” is to make the sound and/or movement of vomiting as cats do when throwing up a hair ball.
  • Rich → Retch: As in “It’s just a get retch quick scheme” and “Filthy retch” and “All a part of life’s retch tapestry” and “That’s a bit retch coming form you!”
  • Nine lives: The “nine lives” thing with cats is well known enough that even mentioning multiple lives in the right context might constitute a cat pun.
  • Free → Furry: Some cute furry puns can be made from this swap: “Buy one, get one furry.” and “Break furry” and “Furry falling” and “Get out of jail furry card” and “There’s no such thing as a furry lunch” and “The best things in life are furry” and “Furry enterprise” and “As furry as a bird” and “A furry-for-all’ and “A furry spirit” and “Got away scot-furry
  • Cable → Kibble: As in “Kibble TV” and “We need to bury this kibble under the lawn.”
  • Whiskers: A “whisk” is a tool for mixing/frothing a fluid. A very specific context would be needed to make a pun with this!
  • To be →Tabby: As in “Tabby or not tabby, that is the question.”
  • Tubby → Tabby: As in “I’ve started on a diet because I’m getting a bit tabby.”
  • To buy → Tabby: As in “I went to the shops tabby some tofu for dinner.”
  • Push → Puss: As in “If puss comes to shove” and “Don’t puss your luck” and “Puss the envelope” and “Puss over the edge” and “A puss over” and “Puss the boundaries”
  • Peace → Puss: As in “No puss for the wicked” and “World puss” and “A breach of the puss” and “Puss be with you” and “Rest in puss” and “Puss of mind” and “War and Puss
  • New → Mew: As in “Brand mew” and “Mew kid on the block” and “Break mew ground” and “As good as mew” and “In a Mew York minute” and “Dawn of a mew day” and “Brand spanking mew” and “You can’t teach an old dog mew tricks” and “Turn over a mew leaf” and “Take on a mew significance” and “What’s mew?” and “Mew fangled” and “Mew money” and “The emperor’s mew clothes” and “Under mew management” and “A whole mew ballgame”
  • Knew → Mew: As in “I mew it!”
  • Giddy → Kitty: As in “I’m feeling a bit light-headed and kitty from all these terrible cat puns.”
  • Pussy: “Stop pussy-footing around” and “Don’t pussy out, let’s get it over with”
  • Catty: As well as referring to cat-like qualities, to be catty means to be “Deliberately hurtful in one’s remarks; spiteful”.
  • Wall → Waul: A “waul” is a loud plaintive cry like that of a cat: “Driven up the waul” and “Balls to the waul” and “Hole in the waul” and “Off the waul” and “Waul of death” and “Humpty dumpty sat on the waul
  • Declaw: This can be used in a figurative sense such as “The post-war convention declawed all the aggressor countries”
  • Litter: This has two cat-related meanings: “A litter of kittens” and “Cat litter”. It has the non-cat related meaning: “This thread is littered with cat puns”.
  • Literally  → Litter-ally: As in “This is litter-ally the most silly discussion ever.”
  • Orange → Ginger: Orange cats are usually described as “ginger”. In the right context you might be able to pull off a cat pun using that fact.
  • (Country/origin): There are several cat breeds which are named after countries, regions or nationalities: Burmese, Persian, Siamese, Russian (Blue), Bengal, Oriental, Himalayan, etc. These could be used as puns if for some reason the context of your word play involves (or could be tweaked to involve) on of these countries/regions.
  • Ragamuffin: This refers to a breed of cat, but also (originally) to a person (usually a homeless child) in ragged, dirty cloths.
  • *his* → *hiss*: If a word contains the “his” sound (or similar) we can sometimes make a cat pun from it: hiss-tory, hiss-terical, pre-hiss-toric, hiss-torian, hisspanic, hissterectomy, anti-hiss-tamine, tox-hiss-ity, Chr-hiss-tian.
  • (Religions): Cat-holics, Meow-slims, Chr-hiss-tians, Meow-mons, Am-fish, Budd-fish-t.
  • Uncomfortable → Un-cat-fur-a-bell: As in “You’re making me feel un-cat-fur-a-bell” (Credit!)

Cat-Related Words

There are many more puns to be made than could be documented in this Punpedia entry, and so we’ve compiled a list of cat-related concepts for you to use when creating your own puns. If you come up with a new pun, please share it in the comments!

pet, feline, carnivore, kitten, fur, scratch, mammal, hairball, neuter, purr, lick, paw, claws, meow, breed, hiss, retch, house cat, tom cat, 9 lives, mouse, furry, kibble, scaredy, predator, whiskers, catsitter, catnip, cattery, canine, tabby, puss, mew, kitty, pussy, grimalkin, cattish, catty, tortoiseshell, wildcat, moggy, waul, declaw, ailurophile, litter, Cheshire cat, alley cat, ginger, bobtail, Russian Blue, Persian, Siamese, Maine Coon, British shorthair, ragdoll, Abyssinian, Sphynx, Birman, Bengal, Russian Blue, Manx, Angora, Korat, Chartreux, Ragamuffin, Havana Brown, Snowshoe, Selkirk, Burmilla, Munchkin, Cymric, Toyger, Peterbald, Nebelung, Oriental, American Shorthair, Ragdoll, Burmese, Himalayan

Did this Punpedia entry help you?

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Shark Puns

Sharks! That’s what this Punpedia entry is all about. Shark puns overlap a little with the entries on dolphin puns, beach puns, water puns, and fish puns, so feel free to check out those articles for some related wordplay. Shark puns often centre around a few key topics: fins, jaws, names of species, and a few other shark-related topics.

As with all entries on Punpedia, if you’ve got a great pun, you can post it in the comments and one of our curators will add it to this entry. And if you’re looking for visual puns, there’s a collection of visual shark puns towards the end of this entry.

Shark Puns List

Each item in this list of shark puns is either a simple word-swap (e.g. Something → Somefin) or it may be a general rule from which multiple puns can be made. In the case of general rules, the asterisk sign (*) represents one or more letters.

  • Something → Some fin: As in “There’s some fin about the way he walks” and “Is that a fish, or some fin else?”
  • Nothing → No fin: As in “No fin is better than swimming with dolphins” and “I’ve got no fin left to give!”
  • Anything → Any fin: As in “Any fin goes.” and “I never said any fin!”
  • *thing → *fin: Generalising on the “some fin”, “any fin” and “no fin” examples, we can often replace “thing” with “fin” when it occurs at the end of the word: everyfin, clo-fin (clothing), breafin (breathing), soo-fin (soothing), scafin (scathing), sunbafin’ (sunbathing), sleufin’ (sleuthing), wrifin’ (writhing), blacksmifin’ (blacksmithing), bequeafin’ (bequeathing), frofin’ (frothing), locksmifin’ (locksmithing), badmoufin’ (badmouthing).
  • Thin → Fin: As in “Vanished into fin air.” and “You’re skating on fin ice.”
  • *thin* → *fin*: Some words that contain “thin” can become “fin” puns: airworfiness (airworthiness), freefinkers (freethinkers), newsworfiness (newsworthiness), stealfiness (stealthiness), wealfiness (wealthiness).
  • Think  → Fink: As in “I fink we should stop.”
  • Thin*  → Fin*: If a word begins with “thin”, we can make “fin” puns: finking (thinking), fink (think), finker (thinker), finning (thinning).
  • Fan* → Fin*: “fan” can sometimes be replaced with “fin” at the start of words to create fin puns: fintastic (fantastic), finciful (fanciful), finfare (fanfare), fintasy, findom, finciful.
  • Fine/Fin./Find/Fun → Fin: The word “fin” can be used to replace many small words than have both ‘f’ and ‘n’ like “fun” and “find”. The term “fin” also a French word meaning “finish”, and so is sometimes seen at the end of old films and books.
  • *fin*: If a word contains “fin”, it’s an easy fish pun: affinity, coffin, definitive, definitively, finch, finesse, finishfinished, finnish, finland, infinity, infinitesimal.
  • In* → Fin*: A lovely and shameful pun can be made from any word starting with “in”. Simply replace “in” with “fin”: finformation, finfluence, finvolve, finternational, finvolved, fintroduce, findeed, finvestment, finto, finclude, finteresting, fintellectual, finjury, fintend, finterview, finsurance, finstrument, … Thousands more can be made with the help of a list like this.
  • *fici* → *fishi*: If a word contains “fici” it can often be replaced with “fishi”. Here are some examples: affishionado, artifishial, benefishial, coeffishient, defishiency, defishit, ineffishient, suffishient, ofishial, profishient, superfishial.
  • Issue → Fishue: As in “That’s not the fishue here though.” and “I was fishued a sign for parking without a ticket”.
  • Killer: As in “These jokes are just killer!” and “Oh wow, that was a killer shark pun you just made.”
  • Door salesperson → Dorsals-person: As in “Door-to-dorsals people are really annoying.” and “Does anyone actually buy things from dorsalsmen?”
  • *tail: Sharks have a tail, so if you’re stretching for an extra shark pun, words containing tail like entail, detail, retail and cocktail may just get you over the line.
  • Dive: As in “The stock market took a dive today,” and “I tried to dive for the ball to intercept it,” and “This relationship has really taken a dive lately.”
  • Finland: As in “I head Finland has great shark puns.”
  • Jawdropping → Jawsdropping: “Jaws” is the name of a popular film series about a killer shark.
  • Yours → Jaws: As in “I didn’t know it was Jaws!” and “I’m all jaws.”
  • Awesome → Jawsome: As in “Jawsome pun, mate.”
  • Snappy: As in “That was a snappy comeback!” and “Well, there’s no need to get snappy.”
  • Chump → Chomp: As in “Yeah, he is a bit of a chomp.”
  • May co* → Mako*: A mako sharks are a well known category of sharks. Example sentences: “He makome with us if he wants” and “Let’s makonversation to be polite.” There are thousands of terrible shark puns to be made using this formula. See this list of words starting with “co” to help you make your own.
  • Make a → Mako: As in “I’m trying really hard to mako shark pun here.”
  • Girl → Gill: As in “Our little gill grew up so fast!”
  • *gil* → *gill*: If a word contains the “gill” sound, replacing it the letters “gill” is an easy homographic fish pun: gillt (guilt), gillbert (gilbert), gillotine (guillotine), gilld (guild), gilligan, gillded (gilded). We can also make (somewhat more laboured) gill puns by using words with the “jill” sound: a-gill-ity (agility), fra-gill-ity (fragility).
  • Serration: Shark teeth have evolved to rely on serration to tear manageable chunks from their prey. In the right context this might work as a subtle shark pun.
  • Reef: Words containing a “reef”-like sound can be made into homographic puns by switching in “reef”: greef (grief), breef (brief), breefcase (briefcase), preefabricated (prefabricated), preefer (prefer), reefill, reeflexes, reefunds, reefurbishment, reefreshed, reefuel, shereef (sheriff), threefold.
  • Tope: The term “tope” is a verb meaning “to drink alcohol in excess, especially regularly”, and it also refers to a type of small, greyish, slender shark.
  • Requiem: The term “requiem” refers to an act or token of remembrance, especially a Catholic mass held in remembrance of the dead. The term also refers to a large family of sharks (including tiger sharks, blacktip sharks, and many of the species involved in attacks on humans).
  • Bonnethead: A bonnethead is a small, harmless shark in the hammerhead family. It sounds like an insult and could be used if you need one with a shark-themed pun: “Stop being such a bonnet head.”
  • Great white: As in “That’s a great white lie and you know it.” and “Look at that great white cloud!” You may also get away with using “big white” as a more subtle pun.
  • Frenzy: Sharks are known for their tendency for “feeding frenzies” when hunting in shivers (a group of sharks). Slipping “frenzy” in  place of words like these may work as a subtle shark themed pun: hysteria, madness, mania, delirium, feverishness, fever, wildness, agitation, turmoil, tumult, wild, excitement.
  • Cookie-cutter: A cookie-cutter shark is a species that bites chunks or “plugs” of flesh out of larger marine animals. There is a potential for wordplay with the original definition of “cookie-cutter” and the definition that means “template”.
  • What an animal → Water animal: As in “Water animal you’ve become.”
  • *ways → *waves: Words than end in “ways” can be made into bad wave puns: alwaves (always), railwaves (railways), sidewaves, pathwaves, lengthwaves, doorwaves.
  • *cy → *sea: If a word ends in “cy” it’s an easy “sea” pun: polisea, agensea, democrasea, currensea, emergensea, efficiensea, tendensea, frequensea, fansea, constituensea, pregnansea, accurasea, redundansea, bureaucrasea, presidensea, legasea, conspirasea, mersea, privasea, bankruptsea, consistensea, literasea, urgensea, deficiensea, dependency, consultansea, tenacity, isea (icy), secrecy, intimasea. See ocean puns entry for more.
  • Se* → Sea*: Some words that start with just “se” also have a “sea”-ish sound: seacret, searious, seargeant, seacretion, seacure, seacurity, seacondary, seacretariat, seaconds, seacrete, searum, searenity, searvitude. See ocean puns entry for more.
  • Sea*: Most words starting with “sea” are easy sea puns: season, seasonal, seated, searingly, sealants, seam. See ocean puns entry for more.
  • See* → Sea*: If a word starts with “see” it can often be replaced with “sea” to create a simple sea pun: seaminly, seads, seaker, seathe, seap, seak, sean, sea (see). See ocean puns entry for more.
  • Man, eating: As in “Man, eating junk food is the worst.” and “Man, eating your words now, aren’t you?.”
  • My neat → Man-eat: As in “Man-eat puns are too good for you.” and “It’s man-eat-ness that helps me stay organised.”
  • Shock → Shark: As in “I was still shivering from shark.”
  • Thin → Fin: As in “Vanished into fin air.” and “You’re skating on fin ice.”
  • Nurse: The nurse sharks are a well-known family of sharks. Regular usage of “nurse”: “Yes, he’s a registered nurse.”
  • Chum: This is a name for chopped fish and fish fluids thrown overboard, often as a shark attractor. Examples of regular usage: “My old chums.” and “We became friends while chumming down at the jetty.”
  • Shirk → Shark: As in “Stop sharking your responsibilities and get the job done.”
  • Pup: A young shark is called a “pup“, and the term is often used (in slang) to describe a young person (especially a cheeky boy).
  • Shiver: When sharks travel in groups, they’re called “shivers”. Example sentence: “Shark puns give me the shivers.”
  • Mega load on → Megalodon: A very specific pun about a famous extinct shark species weighing over 80 tonnes. Example: “I’m too busy, my boss has put a megalodon my shoulders this week.”
  • Predator: Sharks are known for being the “predators” of the sea. Used in the right sharky context, this can be subtle wordplay.
  • Pray → Prey: As in “Just hope and prey that no one gets eaten by a shark.”
  • *prah* → *prey*: Words containing the “prah” sound (or similar) can be turned into abominable “prey” puns: entre-prey-neurial (entrepreneurial), incom-prey-hensible (incomprehensible), misinter-prey-t, dis-prey-portionately, prep-prey-tory, tem-prey-turere-prey-sentation, un-prey-fessional, re-prey-duction.
  • *pri* → *prey*: An easy set of terribly laboured shark puns can be made of words containing “pri”: prey-vatisation (privatisation), prey-mordial (primordial), prey-cing (pricing), prey-de (pride), pro-prey-ietary (proprietary).
  • Basking: Basking sharks are the second largest fish in existence (after the whale shark). The usual definitions of “bask” (“basking in the sun”) can be used as puns in the right context.
  • Busking → Basking: As in “There was basker playing on my street today.”
  • Tiger: This is a play on tiger shark. As in “Easy there tiger!” and “She’s a tiger on the tennis court.”
  • Nas*  → Gnash: Sharks do a lot of gnashing (striking their teeth together) while trying to get their jaws around prey. If a word starts with a “nas” sound (or similar) it may work as a shark pun: gnashty (nasty), gnashtalgic (nostalgic), gnashville, gnash-onalistic (nationalistic), gnashtrils (nostrils), gnasha (nasa).
  • A tacky  → Attacky: Sharks are famous mostly because of their deadly attacks on humans, so the word “attack” is perhaps closely link to “shark” for it to be a shark pun by itself: “That was attacky shark pun.”

Shark-Related Phrases

Common phrases, idioms and cliches which are related to sharks can be used for some subtle and witty word play. Here is a list of the shark themed phrases that we’ve found so far:

  • Flesh and blood
  • Ankle biter
  • Swim with sharks
  • Shark repellent
  • Shark bait
  • Armed to the teeth
  • Wouldn’t shout if a shark bit him
  • Jumping the shark
  • Voodoo shark
  • Set your teeth on edge
  • Going swimmingly
  • Easy tiger
  • Load shark
  • Card shark
  • A fine kettle of fish
  • A drop in the ocean
  • A sea change
  • Out of the jaws of death
  • Corporate shark
  • Swimming along nicely
  • A fish out of water
  • Plenty of fish in the sea
  • Something fishy about that
  • Something smells fishy
  • Bigger fish to fry
  • Chomping at the bit
  • Fishing for compliments
  • A biting review
  • Sink one’s teeth into
  • Stewed to the gills
  • To fish in troubled waters
  • Devil and the deep blue sea
  • Hammer something out
  • Send shivers down one’s spine (A shiver is a group of sharks)

Shark-Related Words

There are always more puns to be invented! Here’s a list of shark-related words to help you out. If you come up with any new shark puns, please share them in the comments!

fish, ocean, sea, beach, waves, fin, dorsal, dorsal fin, teeth, jaws, chomp, bite, gnash, hammerhead, pectoral fin, chondrichthyes, mako, megalodon, isurus, cartilage, thresher, predator, prey, saltwater, underwater, river shark, basking shark, tiger, pelargic, porbeagle, benthic, tiger shark, viviparous, cartilaginous, blood, violent, violence, piscine, ventral fin, tail fin, gills, gill, gill slit, pelvic fin, spiracle, snout, caudal, caudal fin, serration, marine, reef shark, water animal, underwater, carnivorous, tope, dogfish, great white, requiem shark, shovelhead, shovelnose, white pointer, blue pointer, pup, man-eater, man-eating, bonnethead, great blue shark, grey nurse, bull shark, nightmare, chum, chumming, megamouth, catshark, smoothhound, cookiecutter, tiburion, stinkard, sand shark, land shark, wobbegong, shiver, rogue, mermaid’s purse, pilot fish, shagreen, rousette, squaloid, squalus, feeding frenzy, territorial, shark attack

Shark Jokes

If you’re looking for extremely corny shark jokes, then you’ve come to the right place. Most of these jokes rely on some sort of pun for their punchline. Tap or hover on the black rectangle to show the answer.

  • What kind of sharks make good carpenters? – Hammerheads!
  • How did the shark plead in its murder trial? – Not gill-ty!
  • Where do sharks go on vacation? – Finland!
  • I was at the beach today when I saw a man in the sea yelling “Help, shark! Help!” – I just laughed. I knew that shark wasn’t going to help him.
  • What happened to the shark who swallowed a bunch of keys? – It got lockjaw.
  • What’s a shark’s favorite bible story? – Noah’s Shark
  • The last ten times I’ve been to a fancy dress party, I’ve gone as a shark. – The joke’s wearing fin.
  • It’s my ambition to see a great white shark before I die. – Just not right before I die.
  • The star attraction at my local aquarium has been repossessed. – Turns out it was a loan shark.
  • What do you can the mushy stuff stuck between a great white’s shark teeth? – Slow swimmers!
  • What do you call rubber bumpers on yachts? – Shark absorbers.
  • What kind of shark is always gambling? – A card shark!
  • How did the hammerhead do on his test? – He nailed it!
  • I had a nightmare about being attacked by a shark. – When I woke up I realized it was just a bream.
  • What kind of hobby does a shark like best? – Anything he can sink his teeth into.
  • I’ve just seen a huge killer fish singing and playing guitar in the city center – I think it must be a busking shark.
  • If a shark is after you, what should your feed it?  – Jawbreakers!
  • Who is the most famous shark playwright?  – William Sharkspeare!
  • What do you get when you cross a shark with a snowman? – Frostbite!

Shark Pun Images

We’ve scoured the internet and managed to gather together all the visual shark puns (memes, comics, etc.) that we could. If you’ve made or found any more, please share a link to it in the comments!

Did this Punpedia article help you?

All stocked up on shark puns? Or maybe you’re looking for something more specific that wasn’t in this entry? More shark jokes? More visual puns? A bigger list of shark puns that you can use in conversation? Whatever the case, please let us know in the comments! One of our curators or a member of the Punpedia community will do their best to help you out. And as always, if you have any shark puns that we don’t, please share them with us in the comments! Thanks for visiting Punpedia 🙂