Bird Puns

Welcome to the Punpedia entry on bird puns! 🐦 Happily, there are quite a few bird puns in the list below, mostly thanks to the many different species and families of birds whose names lend themselves well to wordplay. Hope you find this entry useful!

Note: Pigeon puns, seagull puns and parrot puns will get their own entry at some point, but there are a few of them in this list for completeness.

Bird 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 birds 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 bird puns:

  • Bird: There are quite a few phrases/idioms related to birds which can be used as puns in the right context: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” and “A bird-brain” and “Bird’s eye view” and “A little bird told me …” and “An early bird” and “Early bird gets the worm” and “Like a bird in a gilded cage” and “The birds and the bees” and “Birds of a feather flock together” and “Flip someone the bird” and “Free as a bird” and “The bird has flown” and “Sing like a bird” and “Jailbird“.
  • Woman → Bird: Depending on where you’re from, the term “bird” may be slang for “woman”.
  • Fly: There are a few phrases related to flying which can be used as bird puns in the right context: “Fly by the seat of your pants” and “Fly in the face of the evidence” and “Fly off the shelves” and “A fly on the wall” and “Fly by night” and “On the fly” and “Pigs might fly” and “Let fly” and “Watch the sparks fly” and “Fly in the ointment” and “Fly into a rage” and “Fly off the handle” and “Fly the coop” and “I’ve gotta fly” and “Fly the white flag” and “Wouldn’t hurt a fly
  • Fry → Fly: As in, “Bigger fish to fly,” and “Out of the flying pan, into the fire,” and “Small fly.” Note: to be out of the frying pan and into the fire means to have escaped one situation only to be caught up in a worse one.
  • Feather: There are a few phrases related to feathers: “As light as a feather” and “In full feather” and “Feather in your cap (symbol of honour/achievement)” and “Feather one’s nest” and “Ruffle (a few/someone’s) feathers” and “You could have knocked me down with a feather
  • Father → Feather: As in “The founding feathers” and “Like feather, like son”.
  • Further → Feather: As in “Without feather ado” and “Look no feather” and “Kick the can feather down the road”
  • Beak: “To wet one’s beak” and “beak” may be slang for nose in some places.
  • Peek → Beak: As in “Beak-a-boo” and “Sneak beak“.
  • Peak → Beak: As in “Beak performance” and “They climbed to the beak
  • Wing: “Left wing / right wing” and “Let’s just wing it” and “Take under your wing” and “Clip someone’s wings” and “Spread your wings
  • *wing: Make some turkey puns by emphasising the “wing” in certain words: swing, drawing, following, harrowing, brewing, growing, owing and knowing.
  • Wringer → Winger: As in, “Put through the winger.”
  • Win → Wing: As in, “Can’t wing for losing,” and “Due a wing,” and “Every one a winger,” and “Heads I wing, tails you lose,” and “How to wing friends and influence people,” and “It’s not the winging that counts, it’s the taking part,” and “It’s not whether you wing or lose; it’s how you play the game,” and “Play to wing,” and “Some you wing, some you lose,” and “Winger takes all.”
  • Whinge → Winge: As in, “Having a winge.”
  • Ring → Wing: As in, “Alarm bells began to wing,” and “A dead winger,” and “Doesn’t wing a bell,” and “Don’t wing us, we’ll wing you,” and “In the wing,” and “Wing of fire,” and “Run wings around,” and “Throw your hat into the wing,” and “Give them a wing,” and “My ears are winging,” and “Does that wing any bells?”
  • Tail: As in, “Happy as a dog with two tails,” and “Nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs,” and “Bright eyed and busy tailed,” and “Can’t make head or tail of it,” and “Chase your own tail,” and “Two shakes of a lamb’s tail.” Note: two shakes of a lamb’s tail is a phrase used to indicated that something is very fast.
  • Tale → Tail: As in, “Dead men tell no tails,” and “Fairytail ending,” and “Live to tell the tail,” and “Never tell tails out of school,” and “An old wives’ tail,” and “Tattle tail,” and “Tell tail sign.”
  • Talent → Tailent: As in, “___’s got Tailent,” and “A tailented painter,” and “Where would you say your tailents lie?”
  • Toilet → Tailet: As in, “Down the tailet,” and “In the tailet.”
  • Style → Stail: As in, hairstail, freestail, lifestail, and stailus (stylus)
  • Tile → Tail: As in, fertail (fertile), percerntail (percentile), projectail (projectile), reptail (reptile), and versatail (versatile).
  • Clutch: Clutch has two meanings: to hold onto something tightly, and a group of eggs. We can make some egg puns using this: “A drowning person will clutch at a straw,” and “Pearl-clutcher.” Note: a pearl-clutcher is someone who is overly prudish.
  • Nest: “Leave the nest” and “Empty nest syndrome” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Love nest” and “Stir up a hornet’s nest” and “A nest of vipers” and “A mare’s nest” and “Nest together”. Notes: empty nest syndrome is the feeling of loneliness a parent may experience when their children move out for the first time. A mare’s nest is a state of confusion or chaos.
  • Next → Nest: As in “Nest minute …” and “Better luck nest time” and “Boy/girl nest door” and “Nest generation” and “Nest in line to the throne” and “Nest to nothing” and “Take it to the nest level” and “Nest to nothing” and “The nest big thing.” and “Cleanliness is nest to godliness” and “In nest to no time” and “Nest to nothing” and “One day chicken and the nest day feathers” and “Catch the nest wave” and “As ___ as the nest girl/guy”. Note: “One day chicken and the next day feathers” is a phrase indicating that things we consider valuable can be lost in no time at all (like a job, marriage, or a house etc).
  • Copy → Parrot: “Parroting (someone’s) words”.
  • Pirate → Parrot: As in “People who parroted the film via bit-torrent were being sent fines.”
  • Fowl: As in, “Neither fish nor fowl.” Note: this refers to something which is not easily categorised.
  • Foul → Fowl: As in “By fair means or fowl” and “Cry fowl” and “Fowl language” and “Fowl up” and “No harm, no fowl” and “A fowl-mouthed person” and “Fowl play”
  • Fell → Fowl: As in “In one fowl swoop” and “Little strokes fowl great oaks” and “The bottom fowl out of the market” and “She fowl asleep at the wheel” and “He fowl under her spell” and “It fowl into my lap” and “She fowl victim to the scammer”. Note: If something is done in one fell swoop, then it was done quickly and in one single action.
  • Fall → Fowl: As in, “A fowling out,” and “Easy as fowling off a log,” and “Bread always fowls butter side down,” and “Can’t help fowling in love,” and “Catch a fowling star,” and “Fowl about laughing,” and “Fowl between the cracks,” and “Fowl from grace,” and “Fowl into bad habits,” and “A fowlen angel,” and “Oh how the mighty have fowlen,” and “The bigger they are, the harder they fowl,” and “United we stand, divided we fowl.”
  • Vowel → Fowl: As in, “The owl without a fowl.” Note: this is a reference to Bill Mlkvy.
  • *fal* → *fowl*: As in, fowllacy (fallacy), fowlter (falter), fowlse (false), fowllout (fallout), buffowlo (buffalo), crestfowllen (crestfallen), defowlt (default), downfowl (downfall), fowlsetto (falsetto), fowlt (fault), fowlsify (falsify), freefowl (freefall), nightfowl (nightfall), waterfowl (waterfall).
  • Owl: “A night owl” and “As wise as an owl“.
  • I will → Owl: As in “Owl not give up.” and “Owl if you will” and “Owl wear my heart upon my sleeve”
  • All → Owl: As in “Free-for-owl” and “A jack of owl trades” and “A man for owl seasons” and “A rising tide lifts owl boats” and “After owl is said and done” and “A know-it-owl” and “Above owl” and “Against owl odds” and “Owl your eggs in one basket” and “Owl at once” and “I’m owl ears” and “Owl else being equal, …” and “Owl by my lonesome” and “Owl hands on deck” and “Owl hell breaks loose” and “Owl gone” and “Owl good things must come to an end” and “Owl in owl” and “Owl in a day’s work” and “It’s owl in your head” and “Owl manner of …” and “Owl of a sudden” and “Owl or nothing” and “Owl over the place” and “Owl right.” and “Owl rights reserved” and “Owl smiles” and “Owl systems are go” and “Owl that” and “Owl talk and no action” and “Owl the best” and “Owl the rage” and “Owl the same” and “Owl things considered” and “Owl things must pass” and “Owl very well” and “Owl walks of life” and “Owl-out war” and “At owl costs” and “By owl means” and “For owl I know” and “For owl practical purposes” and “Give it owl you’ve got!” and “Go owl-out” and “In owl honesty” and “In owl likelihood” and “Firing on owl cylinders” and “If owl else fails” and “In owl seriousness” and “That is owl.” and “Owls well that ends well” and “That’s owl for now.”
  • Who’d → Hoot: As in “Hoot have thought it would be so easy?”
  • *owl*: There are a few words that contain the “owl” sound which can be used as silly owl puns: b-owls (bowels), growl, t-owl (towel), scowling, scowl, fowl, howled, v-owl (vowel), prowling, cowl.
  • Budgie: “Budgie smugglers”. Note: a budgie smuggler is another name for Speedos.
  • Geese: “Cackling geese (those who warn of something that’s about to happen)” and “All one’s geese are swans”. Note: if one’s geese are swans, then they have a habit of over exaggerating accomplishments or things.
  • Goose: “Oh I’m such a silly goose!” and “A wild goose never laid a tame egg” and “Goose bumps/pimples” and “Cook someone’s goose” and “Can’t say boo to a goose” and “Kill the goose that lays the golden eggs” and “A wild-goose chase” and “Goose up (improve performance)”.
  • Fastened → Pheasant: As in “My seat-belt is pheasant, and I’m ready to go.”
  • Swan: “As graceful as a swan” and “Swan song (Final accomplishment)” and “I swan! (What a surprise!)”.
  • Robin: “Robin Hood” and “A round robin” and “Batman and Robin“.
  • Robbing → Robbin’: As in “They were  robbin’ a bank.”
  • Duck: As in “Duck and weave” and “A sitting duck” and “Water off a duck’s back” and “Duck and cover” and “Duck out” and “Ducking and diving” and “Get one’s ducks in a row” and “Golden duck” and “If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and (etc.) like a duck, it probably is a duck” and “Take to like a duck to water” and “Lame duck” and “Ducked the question”.
  • Cower → Quail: As in “He quailed and trembled but tried to remain still.”
  • Chicken: “A chicken and egg situation” and “Chicken out of something” and “Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched” and “Chicken sh*t” and “Get up with the chickens” and “You’re chicken (scared)” and “Curses, like chickens, come home to roost” and “Chicken feed (small amount of money/something)”.
  • Dodo: “Go the way of the dodo” and “As dead as a dodo“. Note: to go the way of the dodo is to become extinct.
  • Hawk: “Watch (someone) like a hawk” and “Have eyes like a hawk” and “I know a hawk from a handsaw” and “Hawks and doves” and “Between hawk and buzzard” Note: to be between hawk and buzzard is to be caught between two extremes.
  • Eagle: “When the eagle flies (payday)” and “Eagle eye” and “Legal eagle
  • *eagle*: If a word contains the “eagle” sound or anything similar, a silly eagle pun can be made: eagle-itarian (egalitarian), illeagle (illegal), geagle (giggle), jeagle (juggle)
  • Cuckoo: “Be in cloud-cuckoo land” and “Cuckoo in the nest” and “A crazy, cuckoo (coo-coo) person.” Note: to be in cloud-cuckoo land is to indulge in an over-optimistic fantasy.
  • Her own → Heron: As in “She’s moved into heron place now.”
  • More → Moa: As in “All the moa reason” and “Moa trouble than it’s worth” and “Bite off moa than one can chew” and “Do moa harm than good” and “Get moa than one bargained for” and “Have had moa than your fair share” and “Have moa luck than sense” and “I couldn’t agree moa” and “Moa and moa” and “Moa bang for you buck” and “That’s moa like it” and “Moa or less” and “Moa often than not” and “Moa power to you!” and “Moa than I bargained for” and “The moa the merrier” and “Need I say moa?” and “What’s more, …” and “You are moa than welcome” and “What moa can I do?” and “Less is moa“. Note: the moa were a type of flightless bird in New Zealand that are now extinct.
  • Swift: Swift means fast/agile, but is also the name of a type of small bird.
  • Flight: “Flight of fancy” and “Take flight” and “Flight of imagination” and “In full flight” and “Flight attendant”.
  • Twitter/Tweet: This can obviously refer to the social network, or to the sound of birds chirping. To “twitter” can also refer to talking rapidly and at length on trivial topics.
  • Swallow: A swallow is a type of bird (and obviously a thing you do when you’re eating/drinking).
  • Two can → Toucan: As in “Toucan play at that game…”
  • Stalk → Stork: As in “To stork one’s prey” and “That guy is a storker“.
  • When → Wren: As in “Wren push comes to shove” and “I’ll believe it wren I see it” and “Say wren…” and “Since wren?” and “Time flies wren you’re having fun” and “Wren in Rome, do as the Romans do” and “Wren it comes to …” and “Wren all’s said and done” and “Wren it comes down to it” and “Wren least expected” and “Wren your back is turned” and “Wren hell freezes over” and “Wren the going gets tough, the tough get going”.
  • Young woman → Chick
  • Chuck → Chick: As in, “Chick a sickie,” and “Get chicked out,” and “Chick overboard.”
  • Trick → Chick: As in, “Bag of chicks,” and “Every chick in the book,” and “How’s chicks?” and “Never misses a chick,” and “One chick pony,” and “A chick of the light,” and “Chick or treat!” and “Chicks of the trade,” and “Up to your old chicks.”
  • Thick → Chick: As in, “As chick as thieves,” and “Blood is chicker than water,” and “In the chick of things,” and “The plot chickens,” and “Chick and fast,” and “Through chick and thin,” and “Lay it on chick.”
  • Egg: There are a few phrases/idioms that contain the word “egg”: “A bad egg” and “Egg on” and “A hard egg to track” and “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” and “Egg on one’s face” and “A good egg” and “A rotten egg” and “Egg and spoon race”. Note: to have egg on your face means that you’ve been made to look foolish.
  • Show-off → Peacock
  • Thrush: This can refer to a type of infection of the mouth and throat or of the genitals, but also refers to a family of birds that exist all over the world.
  • Turn → Tern: (Terns are a family of seabirds found all over the world) As in “Tern the other cheek” and “Wren (when) your back is terned” and “A tern of phrase” and “A tern of the screw” and “I spoke out of tern” and “Take a tern for the worse/better” and “Take terns” and “Toss and tern” and “Tern a blind eye” and “Tern a profit” and “Tern against” and “Tern around” and “Tern in one’s grave” and “Tern of events” and “Tern of the century” and “Tern of the century” and “The tides have terned” and “Tern up one’s nose” and “Whatever terns you on”.
  • Flock: “To flock around/to (someone/something)” and “Flock together” and “Birds of a feather flock together”. Note: birds of a feather flock together means that ones with similar tastes or interest tend to congregate together.
  • Flick → Flock: As in, “Chick flock,” and “Give it the flock.” Note: to give something the flick is to get rid of it.
  • Fluke → Flock: As in, “A lucky flock.”
  • Flake → Flock: As in, “Flock out,” and “Flock-y pastry.” Note: to flake out is to not stand up to promises or expectations.
  • Migrate: Since some bird species migrate, you might be able to make a bird pun by simply using the term “migrate” or “migration” in place of “move” or similar words, depending on the context.
  • Hen: “Don’t let the fox guard the hen-house” and “As scarce as hen’s teeth” and “A mother hen” and “Hen-pecked” and “Hen’s night/party”. Note: to be henpecked is to be bullied or intimidated by a female.
  • *hen*: Words than contain “hen” can be silly chicken/hen puns: Apprehend, appre-hen-sion, comprehend, comprehension, comprehensive, hence, henceforth, repre-hen-sible, stonehenge.
  • *han* → *hen*: As in, “Give me your hend (hand),” and “Do you have a hendle (handle) on it?” and “You look so hendsome tonight,” and “Your hendwriting has improved,” and “Their kids are a real hendful,” and “She was raised as an orphen,” and “The elephent in the room,” and “Please enhence the image,” and “I’ve had an epipheny!” and “This is your last chence,” and “Change the chennel.”
  • *hin* → *hen*: As in, “You’re hendering (hindering) me,” and “Doorhenge,” and “Give me a hent (hint),” and “In hendsight (hinsight),” and “You’re a hendrance (hindrance),” and “Change comes from withen,” and “Looking a bit then (thin),” and “Take it on the chen (chin),” and “Got kicked in the shens (shins),” and “Contrary to what you may think, dolphens are mammals,” and “A rush of endorphens,” and “A street urchen.” Note: to hinder is to block someone’s progress or to make something difficult to complete.
  • *hon* → *hen*: As in, “Brutally henest (honest),” and “An henourable mention,” and “Hello, heney (honey).”
  • *hun* → *hen*: As in, “A wild hench (hunch),” and “The henter (hunter) becomes the hented (hunted),” and “One hendred,” and “I’m hengry,” and “That’s not what I henger (hunger) for.”
  • Peck: “The pecking order” and “Peck at (eat only a bit)” and “You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die”. Note: having to eat a peck of dirt before you die means that no-one can escape unpleasant things; everyone will have some kind of unfortunate circumstance to endure during their lifetime.
  • *pec* → *peck*: As in, “Peckuliar circumstances,” and “Peckan pie,” and “Work those pecks (pecs)!” and “Don’t make a specktacle of yourself,” and “A different perspecktive,” and “Treat them with respeckt,” and “Take all aspeckts into account,” and “Sexuality is a specktrum,” and “Prospecktive interests.”
  • *pac* → *peck*: As in, “Good things come in small peckages,” and “A blood peckt,” and “Pay pecket,” and “Positive social impeckt,” and “A compeckt car,” and “Peckyderm (pachyderm).” Note: a pachyderm is a type of animal (elephants are pachyderms).
  • *pic* → *peck*: As in, “The big peckture,” and “Peck up sticks,” and “In a peckle,” and “A peckturesque view,” and “A few sandwiches short of a pecknic (picnic),” and “An epeck movie,” and “I’m a bit myopeck,” and “Stay on topeck,” and “A new biopeck,” and “A philanthropeck mission,” and “Acting conspeckuous,” and “An accurate depecktion,” and “A despeckable villain.” Notes: if someone is myopic, then they’re short-sighted. A biopic is a biographical film. A philanthropic cause is one which aims to promote charity and the welfare of others.
  • *poc* → *peck*: As in, “Pecket-sized,” and “Get outta here with your hypeckrisy (hypocrisy),” and “Apeckalyspe now,” and “You’re being a hypeckrite.”
  • *puc* → *peck*: As in, pecker (pucker), peckered (puckered), and cappeckcino (cappucino).
  • *bac* → *peck*: As in, “Peckground noise,” and “Peckterial (bacterial) infection,” and “Political pecklash,” and “A beautiful peckdrop,” and “The peckchelor (bachelor),” and “In my peckyard,” and “What a depeckle (debacle).”
  • *bec* → *peck*: As in, peckome (become), peckon (beckon), barpeckue (barbecue).
  • *bic* → *peck*: As in, aeropeck (aerobic), arapeck (arabic), cupeckle (cubicle).
  • Honey eater → Honeyeater: This one would require a very specific context.
  • Cheap → Cheep: As in “Dirt cheep” and “Talk is cheep” and “On the cheep” and “Cheep and nasty” and “A cheep shot” and “Cheep at twice the price” and “Cheep skate”.
  • Swoop: “In one fell swoop” (suddenly; in a single action)
  • Inexperienced person → Fledgling: A “fledgling” is a bird who has only just developed flight feathers. The term is also used for an inexperienced person.
  • Crane: “Crane your neck over the fence”.
  • Crow: “As the crow flies” and “Be up with the crows” and “A crow to pluck” and “Crow bait” and “As hoarse as a crow” and “Stone the crows” and “Something to crow about”. Note: “As the crow flies” is a phrase indicating the most direct path between two points. To be up with the crows is to be awake and active very early in the morning.
  • Canary: “Canary in the coal mine” and “Like the cat that swallowed the canary“.
  • Bill: As in “A dollar bill” and “Fit the bill“.
  • Brood: As in “Brood over/about” (See wiki article)
  • Raving → Raven: As in “Stark raven mad” and “Raven about (something)”.
  • Sore → Soar: As in “I sight for soar eyes” and “Sticks out like a soar thumb” and “Soar loser”.
  • Wobble → Warble: “Warblers” are a classification of bird.
  • Bastard → BustardBustards are a type of terrestrial bird.
  • Pigeon: There are a few phrases which contain “pigeon” and thus may be used as pigeon puns: “Clay pigeon (person who is easily exploited)” and “Set the cat among the pigeons” and “Stool pigeon (decoy/informer/police spy)” and “Pigeon-eyed (drunk)”.
  • Lark: “Happy as a lark” and “On a lark (whim)” This term is also used as a synonym for “a prank” and also playfulness, especially of a mischievous variety.
  • Lock → Lark: As in “Grid lark” and “Lark and load” and “Lark horns with” and “Under lark and key” and “Lark them up and throw away they key” and “Lark down”.
  • Cage: “Rattle (someone’s) cage” and “A gilded cage” and “Who rattled your cage?”
  • Bitten → Bittern: As in “Once bittern, twice shy” and “Bittern by the same bug”, Note: a bittern is a type of bird.
  • Black swan: This is a phrase used to refer to an event that comes as a surprise and has a major effect.
  • Turkey: As in, “Cold turkey,” and “Talk turkey.” Notes: Cold turkey refers to the abrupt and complete quitting of something. To talk turkey is to speak frankly and openly.
  • The Key → Turkey: As in, “Turkey to your heart,” and “Lock him up and throw away turkey,” and “Turkey to a nice, relaxed evening,” and “Turkey to success.”
  • Coot: This can refer to a foolish or eccentric person, especially an old man. It also refers to a type of aquatic bird.
  • Claw: As in, “Tooth and claw,” and “Get your claws into.”
  • Chlo* → Claw*: As in clawride (chloride) and clawrine (chlorine).
  • Clo* → Claw*: As in, clawbber (clobber), claw-ck (clock), clawckwise (clockwise), clawg (clog), clawset (closet), clawth (cloth).
  • Grasp → Clutch: The term “clutch” has a few meanings outside of the “grip/grasp” one. The bird-related meaning of “clutch” refers to a group of eggs, often laid at the same time and incubated by one adult.
  • Click → Cluck: As in “Cluck on that button” and “Her explanation clucked with me straight away”.
  • Clock → Cluck: As in “The cluck is ticking” and “A race against the cluck” and “Around the cluck” and “Biological cluck” and “Turn back the cluck” and “Stop the cluck” and “10 o’cluck“.
  • *rhea*: A “rhea” is a large, flightless bird related to emus and ostriches. If a word contains the “ree-ah” sound, a silly rhea bird pun can be made: approp-rhea-teness (appropriateness),  aqua-rheas (aquarius), adversa-rhea-l (adversarial), ag-rhea-ble (agreeable), aqua-rhea-m (aquarium), bacter-rhea, a-rhea (area), cerheal (cereal), crite-rhea, curheas (curious), experheance, equilibrheam, glorheas (glorius), illustrheas, industrhealised, libertarhean, librarhean, materheal (material), invarheable, memorheal, mysterheas, precarheas, rhea-djustment, rheaffirm, rhealistically, rhealignment, rheappearance, rheasserted, serheasly (seriously), terrestrheal, victorheas, vicarheas, tutorheal, vegeta-rhea-n.
  • Crest:  We say “the crest of a hill” as well as  “the crest of a parrot”. This double meaning is a potential bird/parrot pun.
  • Regret → Egret: As in “I really egret making that pun.” Note: an egret is a type of heron.
  • Full-fledged / Fully-fledged: This means “Having achieved the full status of one’s title.” It comes from “fledged” which means “Gained flight feathers”.
  • Look / glance → Gander: The term “gander” refers to a male goose. The phrase “Take a gander (at something)” simply means “To look at something.”
  • Grumble / complain → Grouse: The term “grouse” can refer to grumbling and complaining, and can also refer to a particular classification of birds that are related to chickens.
  • Grab → Grebe: A “grebe” is a type of freshwater diving bird. It it pronounced “greeb” which is probably close enough to make a silly word play on “grab”.
  • Formation: Flocking birds (especially those who travel large distances) often fly in formations to reduce air resistance and conserve energy. In the right context you might be able to simply use the word “formation” in a non-bird-related way to make a very subtle bird pun.
  • Aerial: As an adjective this means “existing, operating or happening in the air”. As an noun it is a synonym for antenna. It may be able to be used as a subtle bird pun in the right context.
  • Roost: “Come home to roost” and “Rule the roost“.
  • Snipe: This refers to a wading bird of marshes and wet meadows. It obviously has several other meanings: to shoot at from a long range, or to make a sly and petty verbal attack.
  • Rook: This term refers to a social Eurasian crow but can also refer to taking money from someone by cheating or overcharging them.
  • Strike / hit → Shrike: A “shrike” is a type of carnivorous bird. Idioms: “Shrike a cord” and “Go on shrike” and “Shrike a balance” and “Shrike a pose” and “Lightening never shrikes the same spot twice” and “Shrike up a conversation” and “Three shrikes and you’re out” and “Shrike out” and “Shrike gold”

Bird-Related Words

There are many more bird puns to be made! Here’s a list of bird-related concepts to help you come up with your own. If you come up with a new pun, please share it in the comments!

fly, beak, feather, avian, wing, nest, parrot, fowl, kingfisher, owl, hummingbird, vulture, seagull, ostrich, flamingo, budgie, sparrow, geese, goose, penguin, finch, pelican, woodpecker, pheasant, swan, starling, robin, duck, dove, quail, birdie, chicken, dodo, cassowary, hawk, eagle, nightjar, cuckoo, heron, moa, blackbird, hornbill, nightingale, emu, gull, swift, flight, twitter, tweet, swallow, toucan, stork, wren, magpie, chick, egg, peacock, plumage, buzzard, cormorant, thrush, partridge, tern, waterbird, flock, peregrin falcon, migration, waterfowl, bird watching, ornithologist, mockingbird, hen, rooster, peck, honeyeater, songbird, talon, fledgling, swoop, cheep, chirp, crane, crow, canary, bill, pip, brood, weaver, kookaburra, raven, wren, preen, soar, chitter, osprey, big-bird, warble, swordbill, bustard, pigeon, lark, flightless, albatross, plover, tern, aves, aviary, cage, bittern, black swan, blue jay, bluebird, budgerigar, coot, clutch, cockatoo, cockatiel, rhea, congregation, crest, curlew, egret, fledge, flock, gander, gizzard, grouse, grebe, ibis, incubate, kiwi, kite, kestrel, lorikeet, macaw, mallard, pintail, puffin, roadrunner, rook, roost, sandpiper, snipe, shrike, skylark, turtle dove, birdbath, aerial, float, formation

Did this Punpedia entry help you?

Did you find the bird-related pun that you were looking for? If so, great! Otherwise, please let us know what you were looking for in the comments, below! Are you looking for word play for text messages, facebook, twitter, or some other social media platform? Would you like to see some funny bird pun images? Or perhaps you just want more bird puns for your photo captions? Whatever the case, please let us know, and help us improve this Punpedia entry. If you’re got any bird puns (image or text) that aren’t included in this article, please submit them in the comments and one of our curators will add it as soon as possible. Thanks for visiting Punpedia 🙂

Food Puns

Food puns! 🍽️🍛🍝🌯🍟 Whether you’re looking for a pun for your photo’s caption, the latest recipe on your food blog, or whatever else, I hope this entry of Punpedia will serve you well.

Food puns mostly revolve around puns on particular food items (especially vegetables, herbs etc.), but there’s also a few puns based around eating-related words like “supper”, “eat”, “fry” and “swallow”, for example. We’ve also got quite a few food puns about love (e.g. “Olive you so much!” and “Cutecumber”), so if you’re looking for cute food puns to message your partner, I think we’ve got you covered. This entry also covers diet puns to a certain extent, but we’ll eventually get around to giving diet puns their own entry.

In the interests of being a good influence on y’all, we’ve stayed away from puns that are a bit rude, and ones that are about unhealthy foods or foods which cause animals to suffer (dairy, meat, eggs – warning, has footage from factory farms). If you disagree with any omissions, please let us know in the comments – we’re happy to discuss and make changes 🙂 For now, most (but definitely not all) of the entries should be healthy food puns (fruits, nuts, grains, vegetables, etc.) which don’t involve cruelty to animals or crude humor.

You might also like to visit the Punpedia entries on vegetables, fruit, bread, cooking, pasta, potato, curry, corn, watermelon, pie, tacos, pizza, applescandy, coffee, beer and tea.

Food 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 food that we’re missing, please let us know in the comments at the end of this page!

  • Let us → Lettuce: As in “Lettuce eat!” and “Lettuce celebrate!”
  • I love → Olive: As in “Olive you so much!” and “Olive silly food puns!”
  • Or live → Olive: As in “Live like a king olive on a shoe string.”
  • All of → Olive: As in “Sending olive my love to your family.”
  • Time → Thyme: As in “All in good thyme.” and “Better luck next thyme.” and “We just need to buy some thyme.”
  • In jest → Ingest: As in “Many a true word is spoken ingest.”
  • Done → Dine: As in “When all is said and dine” and “Dine and dusted.”
  • Din* → Dine*: If a word begins with the “dine” sound, we can make a dinner pun: dineosaur, dineamically, dineamite.
  • Scoff: This term refers to eating greedily or to talking to someone in a mean and “mocking” manner. Example: “Are you scoffing at my food puns?”
  • Fast: As in “You’re all so fast at these food puns.” and “Not so fast.” (A “fast” is an extended period of not eating. This one is reasonably subtle.)
  • So she → Sushi: As in “Sushi’s studying to become a computer programmer now.” and “Sushi loves you?”
  • Maze → Maize: As in “It’s a complicated maize to navigate.”
  • Crop up: To “crop up” means to appear unexpectedly and/or suddenly, and thus could be a pun on “crop” which is a cultivated grain, fruit or vegetable.
  • Baggage → Cabbage: This one is a bit on the corny side: “I’m carrying around a lot of emotional cabbage.” or “Please place personal items in the overhead cabbage compartment.”
  • Loaf: As in “Stop loafing around! Get up and do something!” (To “loaf” is to waste time and laze about)
  • Lunch → Hunch: As in “The lunch-back of Notre Dame.” and “I got a lunch.”
  • Until → Lentil: A very corny one: “It ain’t over lentil it’s over!” and “It’s all fun and games lentil someone gets hurt.”
  • Branch → Brunch: As in “Shall we call a truce? I’m extending an olive brunch here.” and “We’re brunching out into other industries.”
  • Knack → Snack: As in “Here, let me try, there’s a bit of a snack to it.”
  • Grain: As in “I’m going to go against the grain here and say …” and “There’s a grain of truth in what he’s saying.” and “I’d take it with a grain of salt.”
  • Nut(s): As in “He’s going nuts!” or “Yeah, he’s a bit of a nut.”
  • *nut*: If a word contains the “nut” sound (or similar), we can make a simple nut pun: affectionut, alternutively, compassionut, definutely, femininuty, coordinuts, fortunutely, genutalia, imaginutive, infinuty, magnut, insanuty, opportunuty, proportionutely.
  • Penny → Penne: As in “It cost a pretty penne.” and “A penne saved is a penne earned.” (Penne is a cylindrical type of pasta)
  • Excited → Eggcited: As in “I’m eggcited and curious about plant-based egg replacements.” and “The eggcitement is killing me!”
  • Aren’t you → Orange you: As in “Orange you glad to see me?”
  • Speechless → S-peach-less: As in “You’ve left me s-peach-less.”
  • Honey: As in “Honey, I’m home!”
  • Honey, do → Honey, dew: As in “Honeydew or dew not, there is no try.” or “Honey, dew you know where my keys are?”
  • Melancholy → Meloncholy: As in “An air of meloncholy surrounded him.”
  • Better → Breader: As in “You breader believe it!”
  • Mint: “All of the items are mint condition.”
  • Mean’t → Mint: As in “We were just mint to be.” and “You weren’t mint to eat it!”
  • *ment → *mint: Words that end in “ment” can be simple cheesy “mint” puns: governmint, developmint, momint, managemint, departmint, agreemint, environmint, investmint, employmint, equipmint, commint, assessmint, requiremint, improvemint, appointmint, settlemint, experimint, establishmint, implemint, announcemint, punishmint, measuremint, disappointmint, advertisemint, encouragemint, embarrassmint, segmint, argumint, pigmint, tormint, paymint, ornamint, sedamint, vehemint, shipmint, treatmint, statemint, merrimint. See this list for more.
  • Great → Grate: As in “Oh grate! Another food pun.” and “Grate minds think alike.”
  • All up in your → Jalapeño: As in “Jalapeño business.” and “Jalapeño grill.”
  • Serial → Cereal: As in “There’s a cereal killer on the loose.”
  • Surreal → Cereal: As in “The view from the summit was cereal.” and “I love impressionism and cereal art.”
  • Sublime: As in “The view from the summit was sublime!”
  • Stone → Scone: As in “The philosopher’s scone.” and “Leave no scone unturned.” and “Sticks and scones may break my bones …”
  • Care at → Carrot: As in “I don’t carrot all.”
  • Turn up → Turnip: As in “Turnip the music!” and “It’ll turnip somewhere.”
  • Sacrifice → Sacrifries: As in “It was a supreme sacrifries.”
  • Sacrifice → Sacrifrice: As in “It was a sacrifrice that we had to make.”
  • Suffice → Suffries: As in “Suffries it to say …”
  • Flies → Fries: As in “Time fries when you’re having fun!”
  • Tango → Mango: As in “Well, it takes two to mango.”
  • Man, go → Mango: As in “Hey mango pick on someone else.”
  • Much → Munch: As in “That’s a bit munch.” and “Too munch information.”
  • Serve: As in “Dude, you just got served.” and “My duty is to serve and protect.”
  • Menu: As in “That’s completely off the menu.”
  • Man, you → Menu: As in “Menu need to see someone about that.”
  • Not re-enter → Nutrient-er: As in “You should nutrient-er the discussion after that terrible contribution.”
  • Cook: Other than the obvious definition it can also refer to “altering dishonestly”, as in “They cooked the numbers and were done for fraud.”
  • That → Fat: As in “Fat is not true – take it back!” and “But fat’s another story.”
  • Up beat → Up beet: As in “I’m feeling fairly up beet today :)” (meaning cheerful/optimistic)
  • Sue p* → Soup*: As in “You can’t just soupeople willy nilly.”
  • *sup* → *soup*: If a word contains the “soup” sound we can of course make some silly soup puns: souperb, soupercomputer, soupercilious, souperficial, souperfluous, souperhuman, souperimposed, souperintendent, souperior, souperman, soupernatual, soupersonic, soupervise, soupremely, unsoupervised.
  • Swoop → Soup: As in, “One fell soup,” and “Souped in and saved the day.”
  • Super → Souper: As in, “Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No…it’s Souperman!” and “Souper bad,” and “Souper bass,” and “Souper Mario Bros.” and “Souperhero,” and “Soupersize,” and “Souperhero strength,” and “A lack of soupervision.”
  • *sop* → *soup*: While some of these have a soft “ph” sound, they still work visually for pumpkin soup puns: Souphisticated, souphomore, souporific, aesoup, soursoup, philosouphy, and souprano. Notes: a soporific is a drug designed to induce sleep. Soursop is a type of fruit. 
  • Supper → Soupper: As in, “Sing for your soupper,” and “Soupping with the devil,” and “The last soupper.”
  • Piecemeal: Piecemeal means “a little at a time”, and has the obvious “meal” pun in it already: “I think I can manage to eat all of this, but I’ll have to do it piecemeal.”
  • Milk: As in “You’re really milking this for all it’s got, aren’t you?”
  • So → Soy: This works best when the following word starts with “y”, as in “Soy you think you’re better than me, hey?” and “Soy yesterday went well?”
  • Soil → Soyl: As in “That tofu pun was hilarious – I almost soyled my pants.” and “Fertile soyl.”
  • Wait → Wheat: As in “Wheat a second…” and “I am lying in wheat.”
  • We t* → Wheat: As in “Wheat talked about this last night.” and “Wheat took our time.”
  • We’d → Wheat: As in “Wheat love for you to join us!”
  • Greedy ent* → ‘gredient: This one’s a bit of a stretch! Examples: “Those ‘gredient-erprising bastards!” and “The ‘gredient-titled youngers.”
  • Salty: Other than the obvious food-related definition, this term has several slang definitions including “being upset/angry”.
  • Fruity: Other than referring to actual fruit, this term also has several slang definitions including being flamboyant or “bouncy”.
  • Fruit cake: This term is often used as a synonym for someone who is “one sandwich short of a picnic”, that is, someone who is crazy. Please note that it is also a slang derogatory synonym for “homosexual” in some countries/regions, so be careful using this!
  • Bred → Bread: As in “Perfect table manners! You’re well bread.”
  • It → Eat: As in “Eat is not quite as eat seems.” and “Eat’s not the first time I’ve said this, but …”
  • Its / It’s → Oats / Oat’s: As in “Oat’s just a matter of time.” and “Oat’s a shame.” and “Oat’s nothing personal” and “Oat’s worth oats weight in gold.” and “Takes oats toll.” and “A life of oats own.” and “Oat’s about time!” and “Look at oats cute little face!”
  • Ought → Oat: As in “You oat to say sorry.” and “Five minutes oat to be enough time.”
  • *eat*: Any word that contains the “eat” sound (or similar) can obviously be made into a silly eating pun: cheating, beatle, athleat, aneatime (anytime), compleat, conceated, deceatful, deleat, discreat, eleat (elite), graffeati, fleat (fleet),  featus, heartbeat, Eatalian (Italian), greating (greeting), Peater (Peter), preatending, repeatedly, reatirement, streat, sweatheart, preatentious.
  • Bowl: As in “I was completely bowled over.”
  • Stew: This term can also refer to being in a state of anxiety and agitation. As in “Stew in one’s own juices.” and “I was in a bit of a stew.”
  • Carry → Curry: As in “I’m going as fast as my legs can curry me!” and “Keep calm and curry on.”
  • Even → Oven: As in “Oven my little brother knows that!” and “That’s not oven fair.”
  • Date: A “date” is a type of dried fruit, but it obviously has some more common meanings too: “This is my first blind date.” and “Save the date!”
  • Raising → Raisin: As in “We’re raisin the roof!” and “Raisin two kids as a single mother is hard.”
  • Reason → Raisin: As in “You’re being unraisinable.” and “Let’s use logic and raisin.”
  • Line → Lime: As in “But where do you draw the lime?” and “Drop me a lime.”
  • Piece of → Pizza: As in “You want a pizza me?” and “That’s a pizza cake.” and “They all want a pizza the action.” and “That’s a fine pizza ass.” and “That’s a pizza piss.” and “He’s a nasty pizza work.” and “How long is a pizza string?” and “I’ll give him a pizza my mind!” and “You’re a real pizza work.” and “Pizza the pie” and “Abbreviated pizza nothing”
  • Piece → Peach: As in “Just make sure you get home in one peach.” and “Yeah, he’s a nasty peach of work.”
  • Peace → Peas: As in “Peas be with you.” and “Peas of mind.” and “Inner peas.”
  • Assault → A salt: As in “He was charged with a salt with a deadly weapon.”
  • Wanton → Wonton: As in “This wonton cruelty will not go unpunished!” (Wanton means “deliberate and unprovoked” (also has other meanings), and a wonton is a type of dumpling)
  • Wanting → Wonton: As in “You’ve got me wonton more.”
  • Me so → Miso: As in “Miso hungry.” and “You make miso happy :)” (Miso is a type of Japanese seasoning)
  • Bury → Berry: As in “Don’t berry your feelings.” and “We berried it under that tree.”
  • Very → Berry: As in “These are berry bad food puns.”
  •  Amazing→ Amaize-ing: As in “Truely amaize-ing.” and “Amaize-ing Grace.” and “I’m amaized!” and “To my utter amaizement …” (Maize is another name for corn)
  • Saucy: As in “He was acting a little saucy the other night, no?” and “That’s a very saucy costume you’ve got going there.” (“Saucy” has a few other meanings which could also be punned upon)
  • Catch up → Ketchup: As in “C’mon! We need to ketchup with the others!”
  • Million → Melon: As in “You’re one in a melon!” and “Not in a melon years!”
  • Con* → Corn*: Very corny corn puns can be made with some words that start with the “con” sound (or similar): corntract, corncern, corntain, cornference, corntext, corncerned, corntrast, cornfidence, corndition, corntinue, cornsider, corntry, cornclusion, cornduct, cornversation, cornstruction, cornflict, corntribution, cornsent, cornsist, cornclude, cornservation, corntest, cornception, cornsequences, corsult, corncert, cornventional, corncrete, corntinent, cornfine, cornsistantly, cornstitutional, cornvey, cornsiderably, cornsitituent, corntempt, corncede, cornfess, cornfrontation, corngregation, corntroversial, cornsensus, cornsultancy, cornquest, cornvicted, corngratulate. See this list for more.
  • Have a car though → Avocado: As in “I don’t avocado.”
  • Have a car don’t → Avocadon’t: As in “You avacadon’t you?”
  • I → Pie: As in “Pie am crying as pie write this.”
  • How → Chow: As in “Chow could you do this to me?” and “Chow are you feeling?”
  • Bit her → Bitter: As in “I think a bug bitter or something.”
  • Her before → Herbivore: As in “No, I’ve never met herbivore.”
  • Been → Bean: As in “We’ve all bean there.” and “You know, I’ve bean thinking…”
  • Pee → Pea: As in “Brb, really need to pea.”
  • Can only → Cannoli: As in “We cannoli dream.” (“Cannoli” is a type of sweet Italian pastry)
  • Can’t elope → Cantaloupe: As in “I’d run away and marry you, but I cantaloupe – my parents would never forgive me.” (“Cantaloupe” is another name for rockmelon. “Elope” means to run away to get married, usually without parental consent.)
  • Antelope → Cantaloupe: As in “My favourite animals are deer and cantaloupe.”
  • Deal → Dill: As in “What’s the big dill?” and “I’m kind of a big dill around here.” (“Dill” is a herb, and is often short for dill-pickle – a cucumber that has been preserved and given the flavour of the dill herb)
  • Talk about → Taco ’bout: As in “Jeez! Taco ’bout bad puns!” and “I don’t wanna taco ’bout it.”
  • Not your → Nacho: As in “It’s nacho problem” and “It’s nachos, it’s mine!”
  • Please → Peas: As in “Do as you peas.” and “Pretty peas?”
  • Remain → Romaine: “Romaine” is a type of lettuce. Examples: “Everyone romaine calm.” and “It romaines to be seen.”
  • To my toes → Tomatoes: As in “I got a shiver from my head tomatoes.”
  • Dust → Crust: As in “Another one bites the crust.”
  • Brad → Bread: As in “When’s Bread Pitt’s next film coming out?”
  • Imposter → Impasta: As in “You’re a liar! An impasta!”
  • Roll: As in “We’re on a roll!” and “Ready to roll?” and “She’s a great roll model.” and “Traditional gender rolls are lame.” This could be a play on “bread roll” or other “roll” foods (spring roll, etc.), but it’s subtle.
  • Role → Roll: As in, “Whats your roll here?” and “Competing for the same roll.”
  • J.K Rowling → J.K Rolling
  • *ral* → *roll*: As in, “Rolly (rally) together” and “In generoll” and “Integroll to” and “It’s only naturoll” and “Yes, naturolly” and “Collateroll damage” and “Peripheroll vision” and “Running in parollel.” Other words you could use: liberoll (liberal), moroll (moral), ephemeroll (ephemeral) and visceroll (visceral).
  • *rel* → *roll*: As in, “Not rollevant” and “Rollay the information over” and “A huge rollief” and “Newest rollease” and “In a rollationship” and “Not for rolligion” and “In rollation to” and “Showing rolluctance (reluctance)” and “Rollentless effort” and “Monkeys in a barroll” and “Squirrolling away” and “Lover’s quarroll.” Other words you could use: apparoll (apparel), lauroll (laurel), scoundroll (scoundrel), mongroll (mongrel).
  • Beat → Beet: As in “Let’s not beet around the bush.” and “If you leave now, you’ll beet the rush.”
  • Between → Beetween: As in “Beetween you and me …” and “With your tail beetween your legs.” and “Read beetween the lines.” and “Beetween a rock and a hard place.”
  • Bead → Beet: As in “Tiny round beets are dangerous for children.”
  • Repeat → Rebeet: As in “I’m not going to rebeet myself.” and “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to rebeet it.” and “I warned him rebeetedly.”
  • Love → Loaf: As in “I loaf you <3″ and “The world needs more loaf.”
  • Peer → Pear: As in “Don’t give in to pear pressure.” and “Bit-torrent is a a pear-to-pear network.”
  • Pair → Pear: As in “A fresh pear of eyes.”
  • Per* → Pear*: Words that start with “per” can be made into silly little pear puns: pearformance, pearcentage, peariod, pearmission, pearsonal, pearfect, pearhaps, pearform, pearsuade, pearspective, pearsonality, pearception, pearmanent, pearceived, pearsuaded, pearmanently, pearipheral, pearimeter, pearsist, pearsecution, pearmit, pearpetuate, pearsistance, peariodically, pearvert, pearceptual, pearplexity, pearfectionist, pearpendicular, pearmission. See this list for more.
  • Pass the → Pasta: As in “Can you pasta sauce please?”
  • Past her → Pasta: As in “I walked right pasta without realising.”
  • For → Pho: Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup. Examples: “Pho real??” and “You totally fell pho it!” and “Pho the love of god!”
  • You don’t → Udon: As in “Udon know how much you mean to me.” (Udon is a type of Japanese noodle)
  • Chilly → Chilli: As in “Goodness it’s chilli today.”
  • Fly → Fry: As in “A no-fry zone has been declared by the military.” and “Just a fry on the wall.”
  • Corny: As in “Very corny food puns”
  • Passed away → Pasta way: As in “She pasta way last night.”
  • Tomorrow → Tomato: As in “Here today, gone tomato.”
  • Walk → Wok: As in “I’ll be back soon, I’m going to wok the dog.” and “It’ll be a wok in the park.” and “You’re woking on thin ice there, bud.”
  • Work → Wok: As in “Wok hard, play hard.” and “It’s a wok in progress.” and “All in a day’s wok.”
  • Because → Becouscous: “Why? Becouscous I said so.” (One of the cornier food puns, indeed!)
  • Jam: As in “This is my jam!” and “We just finished our jam session.” and “The venue was jam-packed.”
  • Rap → Wrap: As in “That was an epic wrap battle.” (Playing on the flat-bread sandwich alternative)
  • Fork: As in “We’ve reached a fork in the road.” (There’s also an obvious swear word pun that can be made with fork.)
  • Season → Seasoning: As in “Seasoning’s greetings!” and “For everything, there is a seasoning.”
  • Thrilled → Grilled: As in “He was so grilled to see you!” and “I’m grilled to bits!”
  • Creep → Crepe: As in “That’s a bit crepey, man.” and “Yep, he’s a bit of a crepe.”
  • Source → Sauce: As in “That’s an unreliable sauce.” and “You should cite some primary sauces.”
  • Sup: This term has a few traditional meaning related to food, including “to eat dinner/supper”, but it also has the obvious slang meaning “What’s up?” Thus we can make a sneaky supper pun, but it’d be very corny and heavily dependent on context: Person1: “‘Sup?” Person2: “What? Now? It’s only 3pm!”
  • Graze: This can refer to an injury or to a steady, continual eating style: “Get into a food pun fight with me and you’ll come out grazed.”
  • Grub: This can refer to the animal and is slang for food.
  • Grab → Grub: As in “Can you grub the mail on your way home?” and “She’s good at grubbing my attention.”
  • Not → Nosh: As in “Nosh on my watch.” and “It’s a nosh-for-profit organisation.” (Nosh as a noun refers to food or as a verb to eating greedily)
  • Nos* → Nosh*: As in “It was a noshtalgic experience.” and “His noshtrils were flaring.”
  • Die yet → Diet: As in “I want to curl and and diet I know I must keep fighting.”
  • Gorge: This term can refer to eating greedily or to a narrow, steep valley.
  • Gorgeous: As in “Drop dead gorgeous.”
  • Panties → Pantries: As in “Don’t get your pantries in a twist!”
  • Girl → Grill: As in “You go grill!” and “Grill power!”
  • Toast: As well as referring to cooked bread, this term can also refer to the raising of glasses at a gathering to honour something: “Let’s call a toast.” It also has a slang usage: “You are toast.” Meaning “I’m going to beat you” at some competition (or physically).
  • Byte → Bite: As in “There must be megabites of potential food puns to be made.”
  • Fist → Feast: As in “I’ll rule with an iron feast.”
  • Desert → Dessert: As in “It was like an oasis in the middle of the dessert.”
  • Chip: As in “A chip off the old block.” and “A chip on his shoulder”
  • Arrange → Orange: As in “I’ve oranged an interview for tomorrow evening.”
  • A petite → Appetite: Bit of a stretch: “Does this come in appetite-sized version?”
  • Sugar: Other than the obvious definition, “sugar” is also used as a term of endearment in some countries for one’s partner (similar to “baby”).
  • Sweetie: This is often used as a term of endearment for a loved one, and has an obvious reference to food/sweets.
  • Do not → Donut: As in “I donut want to get into a pun battle with you.” and “Donut tempt me.”
  • Better → Butter: As in “Margarine is butter because it’s healthier.” and “Butter to stay on the safe side.” and “He’s my butter half.”
  • Coarse → Course: As in “Please don’t pun during dinner, Gerald. It’s very course humour.”
  • Course: As in “Is there a university course on food puns?” (“Course” can refer to a particular stage of a multi-stage meal.)
  • Great → Grape: As in “No challenge is too grape.” and “I’ve gone to grape length to compile these puns.”
  • Cater: As in “I can’t cater to your every whim.” and “We need to cater for those who are coming by bus.”
  • Staple: As in “Food puns are unfortunately my staple form of humour.” (This is a play on staple as in “staple food“)
  • Swallow: “That’s a tough pill to swallow.”
  • Pickle: “We’re in a bit of a pickle here.”
  • Killing → Kiwing: As in “Oh god these jokes are kiwing me!”
  • Bananas: As in “I am bananas for you.” and “He’s going bananas!”
  • Celebrate → Celerybrate: As in “Let’s celerybrate!”
  • I am → I yam: As in “I yam who I yam.”
  • Cold → Crisp: As in “The air is crisp this morning!”
  • Jealous → Jelly: As in “You won the raffle?! I’m so jelly!”
  • Feed: As in “You’re just feeding people misinformation.”
  • Order: “Law and order.” and “These restaurant puns are out of order.”
  • Much room → Mushroom: “There isn’t mushroom in here.”
  • Bit of (Bit ‘a) → Pita: “Don’t make a blind pita difference.”
  • Or you → Oreo: “It doesn’t make a difference whether it’s me oreo.”
  • Platter → Plait her: “I love to platter hair – it’s therapeutic.”
  • Dip: As in “Take a dip” and “Dip your toe in.” (Playing on the “crackers and dip” form of “dip”)
  • Wry → Rye: “A rye smile.” and “With rye Scottish wit.” (Rye is a type of grain used to make bread)
  • Come → Crumb: As in “Crumb to think of it…” and “Crumb to your senses” and “Crumb again?” and “Crumb hell or high water.” and “Crumb out of your shell” and “Crumb rain or shine” and “Do you crumb here often?” and “An idea whose time has crumb.” and “The best is yet to crumb.” and “What has crumb over you?”
  • So do → Soda: As in “Soda you think it’s a good idea?”
  • So de* → Soda*: Words (especially adjectives) beginning with the “de” syllable (or similar) can be made into soda puns: sodapressing (so depressing), sodatermined (so determined), sodafensive (so defensive), sodamanding, sodapendable, sodaspairing, sodalighted, sodapendent, sodascriptive
  • Relish: This can refer to the condement called “relish” or to a feeling of great enjoyment: “I relish any opportunity to make a pun about food.”
  • Tube of → Tuber: As in “Can I please purchase a tuber hand cream?”
  • Stuff→ Stove: As in “Don’t sweat the small stove.” and “It’s the stove of legends/dreams.” (This one is a stretch!)
  • Take out→ Take-out: As in “I had to take-out my phone to check the time.” and “I had to take-out a loan just to pay the bill!”
  • Salsa: This can refer to a type of spicy tomato sauce, but also to the Latin American dance music and dance style.
  • Ugly→ Ugli: As in “Ugli duckling.” and “This person has an ugli heart.” (Ugli is a type of fruit)
  • Least→ Yeast: As in “Last, but not yeast.” and “Yeast common denominator.”
  • Okay→ Okra: As in “Are you feeling okra?” (Terrible! 😀 By the way, okra is a plant the has edible green pods, if you didn’t know)

Food-Related Phrases

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

  • if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen
  • too many cooks in the kitchen
  • bite the hand that feeds you
  • crammed in like sardines
  • dine in
  • dog eat dog
  • cool beans
  • enough ants can eat an elephant
  • feeding frenzy
  • he’s a few fries short of a happy meal
  • more degrees than a kitchen stove
  • small fry
  • she’s out to lunch
  • there’s no such thing as a free lunch
  • whet your appetite
  • you can’t have your cake and eat it too
  • top/bottom of the food chain
  • food of the gods
  • a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips
  • as cheap as chips
  • bear fruit
  • as nutty as a fruit cake
  • bite off more than you can chew
  • bite the big one
  • bite the bullet
  • bread and butter
  • cake walk
  • cast your bread upon the waters
  • chew the fat
  • ankle biter
  • chicken feed
  • cook up a storm
  • couch potato
  • eat humble pie
  • to eat out of someone’s hand
  • eat like a pig
  • eat my dust
  • feast your eyes on this
  • food for thought
  • forbidden fruit
  • fruit cake
  • have your bread buttered on both sides
  • know which side your bread is buttered
  • bread always falls buttered side down
  • the greatest thing since sliced bread
  • i’ll eat my hat
  • it’s not worth crying over spilt milk
  • let the chips fall where they may
  • lean cuisine
  • make like a banana and split
  • movable feast
  • off the menu
  • shut your cake hole
  • revenge is a dish best served cold
  • sound bite
  • the big apple
  • the cherry on the cake
  • you are toast
  • a recipe for disaster
  • bite the dust
  • whet your appetite
  • out of the frying pan, into the fire

Food-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 food-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!

dine, ingest, ate, gobble, devour, taste, sup, graze, forage, chow, tucker, grub, morsel, nosh, munch, munchies, diet, gorge, serving, serve, menu, larder, pantry, appetite, grill, perishable, famine, delicacy, voracious, scoff, fast, fasting, nutrition, rice, nutrient, provender, victuals, cooking, cook, pabulum, cereal, drink, fat, soup, nourishment, agriculture, pasta, feed, sustenance, meal, milk, wheat, ingredients, sushi, hunger, hungry, sugar, maize, plant, vegetarian, vegan, protein, vegetable, potato, vitamin, bitter, foodstuff, consumption, consume, salt, saltiness, edible, salad, soul food, junk food, produce, fruit, restaurant, chocolate, coconut, breakfast, dinner, lunch, bread, foody, eat, kitchen, nuts, nut, baking, baked goods, food industry, food safety, pizza, meal, crops, fast food, supermarket, taste, mineral, loaf, carbohydrate, legume, bean, pea, lentil, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, lasagna, asparagus, cuisine, bean, tomato, pumpkin, eggplant, carrot, repast, onion, spinach, spaghetti, eating, brunch, snack, grain, luncheon, sweets, sweet, macaroni, porridge, omnivore, omnivorous, herbivore, herbivorous, celery, burrito, garlic, saliva, salivation, plate, bowl, over-eat, over-feed, farming, spoon, fork, spork, grocer, break bread, tofu, soy, fry, stew, curry, sandwich, jam, cake, apple, toast, bite, canteen, chew, dish, feast, pudding, savoury, dessert, belly, satiated, chips, glutton, grub, biscuit, peanut, grocery store, soup kitchen, digestion, garnish, roast, ration, raw, refreshment, famish, succulent, tasty, delicious, scrumptious, delectable, oatmeal, airplane food, dietary, ambrosia, appetite, bland, tin can, pepper, saute, nibble, underfed, gourmet, bbq, barbecue, spicy, staple, picnic, topping, risotto, mash, stir-fry, calories, obese, obesity, digestible, recipe, catering, coarse, starve, starving, cinnamon, caloric, wolfish, snacky, swallow, greasy, rapacious, engorge, glutton, gluttonous, banquet, dinnertime, supper, eat up, fried, overindulge, pick at, binge, gobbler, eats, tofurkey, foodtography, bagel, uneaten, perishable, taco, supermarket, brainfood, stomach, napkin, buffet, thanksgiving, dishes, olive, tomato, radish, jello, peas, romaine, crust, slice, pickle, dill, peach, orange, kiwi fruit, maize, berry, ketchup, sauce, spice, butter, cannoli, mint, date, fig, jalapeno, avocado, wonton, papaya, banana, hash brown, sweet potato, kidney bean, bread roll, roll, donut, melon, caramel, cauliflower, pear, pretzel, peal, gnocchi, brown rice, french fries, flavour, grape, appetiser, boil, bran, chick peas, cookbook, cloves, crisp, gravy, jelly, mushroom, oven, order, pot, salsa, dip, refrigerator, relish, rhubarb, rye, spatula, syrup, stove, take-out, wasabi, walnut, wok, yeast, vanilla, vinegar, utensil, toaster, slaw, coleslaw, mayonnaise, sesame seeds, zucchini.

Food Jokes

If you’re looking for some very corny food jokes, you’ve come to the right place. All of these one-liner-style food jokes use puns in their punchline. Some are phonetic puns, others are based on a slang phrase or cliche related to food.

  • What did the baby corn say to its mamma corn? – Where’s my pop corn?
  • Did you hear the joke about the peanut butter? – I’m not telling you. You might spread it!
  • Waiter, will my pizza be long? – No sir, it will be round.
  • Why couldn’t the sesame seed leave the gambling casino? – Because he was on a roll.
  • What do you call a fake noodle? – An impasta.
  • Why doesn’t bread like warm weather? – Because things get toasty
  • Did you hear about that famous Italian chef who died?  – Yeah, he pasta way.
  • Waiter, this food taste’s kind of funny… – Then why aren’t you laughing!
  • Why did the banana go to the doctor? – Because it wasn’t peeling well!
  • What are the twins’ favourite fruit? – Pears!
  • What do you call a peanut in a space suit? – An astronut!
  • What does a nosey pepper do?– Gets jalapeno business!
  • Why did the students eat their homework? – Because the teacher said it was a piece of cake.
  • Why did the tomato blush? – Because it saw the salad dressing!
  • What do you call the king of the vegetables? – Elvis Parsley

Food Pun Images

Below is a collection of food-related visual puns and meme-type images. If you’ve created your own visual food puns or found one that we’ve missed, please post us a link in the comments section 🙂

Did this Punpedia entry help you?

Did you find the food-related pun that you were looking for? If so, great! Otherwise, please let us know what you were looking for in the comments, below! Are you looking for puns for text messages, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or some other social media platform? Would you like to see more funny food pun images? Or perhaps you just want more food puns for your photo captions? Whatever the case, please let us know, and help us improve this Punpedia entry. If you’re got any food puns (image or text) that aren’t included in this article, please submit them in the comments and one of our curators will add it as soon as possible. Thanks for visiting Punpedia 🙂