Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To smile in an affected, often offensively self-satisfied manner.
- n. An affected, often offensively self-satisfied smile.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To smile affectedly or wantonly; look affectedly soft or kind.
- Synonyms Simper, Smirk. See simper.
- n. An affected smile; a soft look.
- Smart; spruce.
Wiktionary
- n. An uneven, often crooked smile that is insolent, offensively self-satisfied or scornful.
- v. To smile in a way that is affected, smug, insolent or contemptuous.
- adj. obsolete smart; spruce; affected; simpering
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To smile in an affected or conceited manner; to smile with affected complaisance; to simper.
- n. A forced or affected smile; a simper.
- adj. Nice,; smart; spruce; affected; simpering.
WordNet 3.0
- v. smile affectedly or derisively
- n. a smile expressing smugness or scorn instead of pleasure
Etymologies
- Cf. Middle High German smielen/smieren ("to smile") ( > obsolete, rare German schmieren). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English smirken, from Old English smercian, to smile; see smei- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“BTW Sam ... a 'smirk' is certainly in the eye of the beholder ... you obviously have a jaundiced eye!”
“I just can never, ever take this Dreamworks stuff seriously as long as that smirk is front and center, in my face.”
How to Train Your Dragon: “Dragon Training” Featurettes | /Film
“His congenital smirk is best described as the sort of grin that, if named, would guarantee this comment a term in Moderator Purgatory.”
“A smirk is exactly what Bolloks has on his face during his heckle.”
“How he held back that tell of tells, the smirk, is beyond me.”
Think Progress » More McCain Attacks: Murtha ‘Sentimental,’ ‘Never Been a Big Thinker’
“A smirk is really a terrible habit for any politician.”
“In Art History, our teacher superimposed as self-portrait of DaVinci over an image of the Mona Lisa, saying that one theory claims that the mysterious Mona Lisa smirk is simply DaVinci’s secret that he painted himself as a woman.”
Think Progress » Murtha on Iraq: ‘There’s Not Only No Progress, It’s Worse Than It Was Prewar’
“I believe what you are calling a smirk is where his teleprompter is telling him to "SMILE" -- that's so we, and he, know that he told us a joke, and also to dispel that nasty rumor going around about his bad temper.”
“He recalled her smirk when she came back with some trousers and dropped them on the ground.”
“Andrew was led to his place in front of Mr. Davies by Uncle Thomas (who was wearing what could only be described as a smirk) when suddenly, Marina lost her smile, and stared -”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘smirk’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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SMILE and other emotive verbs
Single verbs that describe expression or emotional reaction. "He __ed" (smiled/gulped/scoffed...)
smile, beam, sneer, scoff, giggle, laugh, snigger, scowl, grin, leer, wince, grimace and 97 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 11250 more...
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Words Stephenie Meyer Overuses
A collection of words author Stephenie Meyer overuses and abuses in her 'Twilight' series of young adult vampire fiction. Every time you read one of these words in her books, you will GRIMACE and C...
chagrin, grimace, chuckle, smirk, whispered, lope, scintillating, marble, topaz, smoldering, smolder, perfect and 30 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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dyy's Words
ambivalence, irony, double-edged sword, paradox, struggle, plunge, buoy, pigeon-hole, ultimately, status quo, fuel, undermine and 230 more...
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Words that delight me
tepid, perfunctory, trope, benign, inordinate, bewildering, ersatz, boon, delectable, apt, scuttlebutt, sequester and 398 more...
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Reading Reading
Words from the works of Peter Reading - at least one from each (except the Schwitters-esque erosions, cut-ups etc).
overbright, pimpled, muskiness, effuse, stoup, maul, unlevel, viscid, perfidious, glibly, aloes, drouth and 449 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Ways to Smile
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Face Place ㋡
Facial expressions, methods for determining emotional states, and general terms for passionate emotional states.
I've put specific-emotion words in these other lists of mine:
Hap...perfervid, vehement, demonstrative, fervent, torrid, frantic, agog, choler, moue, histrionic, dacrygelosis, verklempt and 92 more...
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deegee's Words
pay-per-view, vitriol, delectable, snarky, unflinching, forsake, pervasive, inconsequential, unnerving, allure, endearing, unalloyed and 414 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for smirk.
yarb An exponent of the compliant smirk
welcomed me, carried my case for pence.
- Peter Reading, Placed by the Gideons, from Nothing for Anyone, 1977 Jun 26, 2008