no jokeとは 意味・読み方・使い方

名詞

no joke

1. Something that should be taken seriously; not something that should be laughed about.

   Synonym: no laughing matter

   • 1891, Canada. Parliament. House of Commons, Official Reports of the Debates of the House of Commons, page 3743:

     But, sir, it is not a farce to the Canadian people; it is no joke to the Canadian tax-payer. If it is either a farce or a joke, they must foot the bill. No , it is no joke to them; it is something else, and something a great deal worse .

   • 1893 January 28, “The Release of Egan”, in The Speaker, volume 7, page 95:

     Treason-felony, we repeat, is no joke; but then no more is penal servitude for nine years.

   • 1929, Crascredo, No Joke:

     Incompetence was no joke when ( other ) people got killed by incompetence. It was no joke when the children, growing old enough, really did go away to war; and not much of a joke when soldiers who were little more than children came out to join in that War.

2. (informal) Something that is unusually difficult or painful.
   • 1985, William Tsap En Wong, ‎James Kim Min Wong, No Joke, James, page 434:

     In addition, Papa was no doubt influenced by his obsession that life is hard, is meant to be hard, and is no joke at all.

   • 2011, David P. Simmons, No End of Guilty Creatures, page 77:

     There was no joke about it whatsoever. That pregnancy was not an easy one.

   • 2021, Gordon Farlie, No One Told Me There Would Be Days Like This:

     It was no joke. And yes, I did survive, but I became very ill in November due to all the stress and had to take five days off.

   • 2023, Terry Donegan, Black Irish Luck, page 146:

     That race was no joke.

参考

• no mean feat

Further reading

• “no joke”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “be no joke”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “something is no joke”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “something is no joke” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.