Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The expanse of an open mouth, a bird's beak, or similar structure.
- n. A gaping grimace: "his mouth gaping in a kind of rictus of startled alarm” ( Richard Adams).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In ornithology, the gape of the bill; the cleft between the upper and the lower mandible when the mouth is open.
- n. In botany, the throat, as of a calyx, corolla, etc.; the opening between the lips of a ringent or personate flower.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The gape of the mouth, as of birds; -- often resricted to the corners of the mouth.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a gaping grimace
Etymologies
- From Latin rictus, participle of ringor ("open the mouth wide") (Wiktionary)
- Latin, from past participle of ringī, to gape. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It was best described as a rictus – a mug somewhere between a frozen formal grin and someone trying to hold back on saying, “oh shit oh dear …”.”
“I have not yet seen the photographs but I see the word 'rictus' coming to my mind.”
“The parents went on and on about how Daniel is usually so shy, but he really loved me, and my peaceful meal turned into me trying to appease some young chitterling at the next table with some kind of rictus plastered across my weary face.”
“Her face hardened, and her mouth pulled into a gaping rictus.”
“Her mouth curled into a rictus of a grin, her front teeth broken and ragged.”
“His scaled lips pulled back in a mocking rictus of a grin.”
“They stare silently back at me, their faces frozen in a permanent rictus of hate.”
Bright Western knick-knack challenge!!! « Third Point of Singularity
“I appear tortured and gripped with terror, my features drawn in a rictus of anxiety.”
“Her eyes were clenched shut, a rictus of pain marring her features.”
“Majeed's own face was a rictus of anguish as his counsel, seeking to mitigate the prison sentence he will surely receive for his part in a conspiracy to subvert cricket, held up Butt as the criminal mastermind.”
The Guardian: Salman Butt, a man who had everything, faces a life of ignominy
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rictus’.
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Words without the letter E
chord, slur, anabaptist, anabolic, diabolic, turbid, torpid, somniloquist, trump, bipolar, dioxin, hydrocarbon and 107 more...
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phrontistery-r
from phrontistery.info
rya, rutilant, ruthful, rutherford, ruth, rusticity, rusticate, Russophobia, Russophile, russet, russel, rushlight and 514 more...
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wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 355 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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New Words
No definite conception of these words.
reggaeton, fugacious, astray, artillery, quietism, heteronomy, plebeian, remit, hypostasize, discountenance, rictus, wail and 60 more...
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I didn't know there was a word for that!
interdigitate, aspheric, benthos, reptation, pastiche, pandiculate, agelast, obdormition, dysania, armscye, phosphene, etiolation and 62 more...
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SweetZingiber's list
tmesis, dilatory, palzogony, levigate, syzygy, iteration, frizzle, carraque, equipoise, paean, rictus, saturnine
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theyearofglad's list
Awesome words.
palimpsest, portmanteau, prolix, sycophant, eschew, revenant, haecceity, velleity, equipoise, caesura, soteriology, inchoate and 23 more...
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I do not like them, Sam I Am
Words that, for various reasons, I wish we could do without.
copacetic, gamut, horehound, lewd, membrane, metrics, mucous, mucus, negligee, nostril, odious, odor and 143 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
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spicolli's Words
terrapin, ravenous, fuck, sepulchral, garlic, suss, queer, curmudgeon, foodie, intricate, omphalos, subversion and 534 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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Word of the day.
Some days, there will be a word. That word is the word of the day. Other days shall remain wordless. That's just the way things go.
petulant, anisometropia, zoroaster, cram, affinity, proprietary, cupertino effect, sidereal, schmutz, icosanoids, vendetta, bougie and 137 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Words gathered while reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.
refectory, soutane, ha-ha, jewelly, girt, centenary, collywobbles, coadjutor, catafalque, beeftea, pierhead, bedad and 235 more...
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Listless
Nowhere else to put these yet.
sibilant, cloying, pithy, apologia, odyssey, amanuensis, pleasantries, ginormous, burnish, sojourn, quonset, over-under and 217 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rictus.
bilby "A rictus of cruel malignity lit up greyly their old bony faces."
- James Joyce, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'. Aug 26, 2009
hernesheir (n): the gape of the mouth, as of birds; often specifically the corners of the mouth. Jan 1, 2009
bookhling *I said smile, not horrible rictus!*
from the Questionable Content Sep 13, 2008