screwball

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Hollywood thrived in this tough decade partly by catering to people’s need for fantasy and escapism, through screwball comedies, adventure stories and the elaborate musicals of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 21, 2026

Despite the screwball setup, “The Hitch” is, as much as anything, a moving meditation on loneliness, longing and familial short leashes.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026

Scratch just beneath the film’s screwball surface and its beating heart as a food movie quickly reveals itself.

From Salon • Dec. 25, 2025

Which is where “Good Fortune,” for all its grasp of how Depression-era screwball comedies made the filthy rich mockable, struggles to match its issue-driven humor with its fix-it heart.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 17, 2025

“No, and neither does a screwball like you,” George said, looking at the watering eye behind the monocle and the moistness at the mouth of the beard.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole