A list of 32 words by uselessness.
- shrug appears on 11 other lists
- wink appears on 22 other lists
- smile appears on 63 other lists
- pucker appears on 16 other lists
- blink appears on 41 other lists
- point appears on 46 other lists
- nod appears on 20 other lists
- gaze appears on 39 other lists
- avert appears on 54 other lists
- blush appears on 49 other lists
- slouch appears on 17 other lists
- straighten appears on 6 other lists
- stare appears on 17 other lists
- yawn appears on 30 other lists
- pace appears on 32 other lists
- glare appears on 22 other lists
- fidget appears on 48 other lists
- twiddle appears on 19 other lists
- bristle appears on 49 other lists
- smirk appears on 40 other lists
- grin appears on 25 other lists
- frown appears on 21 other lists
- gape appears on 30 other lists
- pause appears on 12 other lists
- leer appears on 38 other lists
- sneer appears on 32 other lists
- cringe appears on 45 other lists
- cower appears on 31 other lists
- salute appears on 13 other lists
- thumbs-up appears on just this list
- thumbs-down appears on just this list
- beckon appears on 28 other lists
CornflowerBlues Wow, nice list! I cannibalized a few of your words for my similar list of emotive verbs, so thanks! Aug 17, 2012
uselessness All good ones, thanks. I decided not to use high-five because it's too interactive in nature... these are all meant to be things you can do from across the room, without an action on behalf of the "receiver." Feb 22, 2007
trivet If you like salute, how about high five and thumbs up? If you hyphenate them, they're only one word... Feb 22, 2007
oroboros cringe, cower, salute? Feb 22, 2007
uselessness Pause I'll take. I'm gonna pass on the nonverbals that make a sound, including belch. I like it, but the list would get kind of ridiculous if I included every non-speech noise people can make. :-) Feb 22, 2007
seanahan What about belch? Feb 22, 2007
sionnach leer, sneer? Feb 22, 2007
meeralee Hmmm. Pause? It doesn't work in your sentence, but it does work with "Instead of saying what he meant, uselessness (BLANKED) meaningfully." Feb 22, 2007
chained_bear Wow. I totally missed that and read them all as nouns. Whoops! Feb 22, 2007
uselessness They're actually meant to be verbs. Try using them in the following sentence:
"If you want to communicate to another person without speaking, you can (BLANK) at him/her." Feb 21, 2007
chained_bear roll your eyes is a phrase, but what about eye-rolling? or if you want to keep it to nouns rather than participles... eye-roll? Feb 21, 2007
uselessness Thank ye. Feb 21, 2007
trivet bristle, smirk? Feb 21, 2007
uselessness Thanks, trivet! Gesture doesn't count because, for the most part, these are all gestures. :-) Feb 21, 2007
trivet glare, fidget, twiddle? Does gesture count? Feb 21, 2007
uselessness All excellent. I keep thinking of good multi-word phrases like stare at your feet and play with your hair but I want to keep this list to simple verbs. I'm still trying to decide if I want to use roll your eyes but I think that one's just as lengthy. Feb 21, 2007
reesetee Great list idea! How about stare or yawn? Pace, maybe? Feb 21, 2007