Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Hypocritically, complacently, or effusively earnest; unctuous. See Synonyms at unctuous.
- adj. Sleek.
Wiktionary
- adj. Falsely earnest, smug, or ingratiating.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech
Etymologies
- From smarm, a variant of smalm/smawm. (Wiktionary)
- From smarm, to smear. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Can I noninate George Will for a Nobel prize in smarmy?”
“KATZ: Well, we look at folks part of the felt family and the word smarmy comes into play.”
“Nice to meet you," he said in a voice that recalled the smarmy tone of Eddie Haskell complimenting June Cleaver on her fetching outfit.”
“He is best known as the smarmy Psychologist in “Silence of the Lambs.””
“Actually, Hannity always looks a little smarmy, which is one reason he's so irritating, but this is fine.”
“Citing a "smarmy" letter that Washington wrote in 1757, bemoaning his lot to the commander in chief, Lord Loudoun, Mr. Clary highlights some especially outspoken, self-pitying and "whining" comments.”
“I did not want to do this and it makes me feel kind of smarmy but you leave me no choice.”
“This kind of smarmy O-bomb-A cheerleading bullshit needs to be called out every time it appears.”
“Of course it is needless to say this was dressed up with faux-creative writing skills, accompanied by the kind of smarmy posturing and ad hominems that so frequently characterizes the attacks from “the left”.”
“He was kind of smarmy and snotty in his response when he said "That's an impressive pledge, Joe...seeing as you have so much on the line... and you'll have such an opportunity to fulfill that pledge".”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘smarmy’.
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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UK - slang
fanny, nick, mufti, siphon, mug, smashing, butcher, stick up, knocker, porridge, tit, punter and 208 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2042 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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The Storybook Words
Words from children's literature that feed young imaginations and spark a love of words and language.
peril, sparkle, fizzle, kerfuffle, lachrymose, heebie-jeebies, turtleneck, peacoat, smarmy, daffodil, snapdragon, grouch and 1 more...
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Words cool peeps use
These are words I have overheard, or over-read, or had whispered in my ear :-)
loquacious, zygote, epigone, kismet, philotheoparoptesism, venal, imbroglio, ephemeral, smarmy, machination, callipygian, lexicon and 8 more...
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It's All Just Words.
quixotic, penisaurus rex, plibt, pot, polaroid, gemütlichkeit, hey! pooper scoop..., nowhere, anywhere, somewhere, elsewhere, wherever and 80 more...
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Oh yeah? You and what army?
For more captains, see the O Captain! My Captain! list.
smarmy, an army of me, colonel sanders, colonel parker, dumbledore's army, major catastrophe, barmy, majordomo, corporal punishment, private eye, private property, private parts and 60 more...
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mots justes
No true synonyms, no other word will do.
dysphemism, nyehre, conflate, onomatopœic, galumph, zeitgeist, mercenary, theomeny, git, snarky, sass, smarmy and 46 more...
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difficult words
ordure, tatterwallop, callipygian, odious, colophon, cynosure, hardener, emollience, valetudinarian, demonym, volage, polysemantic and 256 more...
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apjoseph's words
insurmountable, ubiquitous, unequivocal, incumbent, asinine, amenable, sycophants, precarious, malevolent, gregarious, raison detra, nefarious and 200 more...
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JesusIsLord's Words
debauchery, plethora, wiki, numinous, wormwood, scribe, gelded, mithridate, orthogonal, jaculiferous, jaculate, jactitation and 415 more...
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addendumb's Words
fey, cockshut, redact, beatific, melange, arcanum, rarefied, dissemble, capitulation, detritus, ennui, anodyne and 381 more...
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thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
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words I love to use
kerfuffle, smarmy, sketchy, grim, wheedle, piffle, prattle, loggerheads, snarky, piddling, nix, caterwaul and 90 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for smarmy.

arjunpanda126 what a terrible word Sep 27, 2009
marky Another word I despise. Truly Disgusting and ridiculous word. Dec 23, 2008