Word.ws English Dictionary

end-of-the-pier

end-of-the-pier adjective: pertaining to a bawdy, old-fashioned style of broad comedy.

Adjective

end-of-the-pier (not comparable)

  1. (UK, derogatory, usually) Pertaining to a bawdy, old-fashioned style of broad comedy.
    • Meanwhile, that butt of the end-of-the-pier comedian's joke, the mother-in-law as dictatorial hag, has become a figure associated with nostalgia for the days when workingmen's clubs were just that (and, indeed, marking a time when generations were forced to live cheek-by-jowl in the same household).1999, Andrew Blaikie, Ageing and Popular Culture, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 156
    • It seems a simple yes or no question, but actually compresses a complex group of ideas - about sexuality, gender, meaning and the figurative history of sculpture - into something you might expect from an end-of-the-pier comedy routine.2002, Frieze: Contemporary Art and Culture

Origin of end-of-the-pier

A reference to the pleasure piers in British seaside resorts, which often featured music hall entertainment and were popular working-class holiday locations.

Questions about end-of-the-pier

What does end-of-the-pier mean?
End-of-the-pier means pertaining to a bawdy, old-fashioned style of broad comedy.
What part of speech is end-of-the-pier?
End-of-the-pier is an adjective.

Words near end-of-the-pier in the dictionary

  1. end-of-life
  2. end-of-lifed
  3. end-of-lifes
  4. end-of-lifing
  5. end-of-pier
  6. end-of-the-pier
  7. end-of-the-world
  8. end-on
  9. end-on-end
  10. end-organ
  11. end-organs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: end-of-the-pier (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “end-of-the-pier.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/end-of-the-pier. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.