n. an expressionless face. (See also pan = face.) : This guy has a super deadpan.
n. a person with an expressionless face. : When you come on stage, look like a deadpan.
mod. dull and lifeless. (Usually said of a face, expression, etc.) : He has such a deadpan approach to everything.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition. Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Example sentences
Both extremes are actually somewhat funny as the dramatic ones generally play off the more deadpan readers.
After a ghastly pause, he stammers and makes a deadpan joke, barely retrieving the situation.
But there is a limit to how much charm, and how many laughs, he can wring out of deadpan idiocy.
Instead he uses his old comic style--mixing deadpan delivery with wild visual gags--to create an elegant directorial approach.
The story of his subsequent seduction by the widow is told in the same droll, deadpan style.
Then you enter a script to make those characters speak, in their deadpan robot tones.
He is full of wit and humor, by turns almost vaudevillian and master of the deadpan joke.
Grace is handsome and slender, with a deadpan delivery and an aura of shrewdness.
Earnest and deadpan funny, her work can also be borderline creepy, which is part of the point.
Their deadpan earnestness in improbable situations helps make this broad comedy work.