释义 |
▪ I. sneering, vbl. n.|ˈsnɪərɪŋ| [f. sneer v.] The action of the verb sneer.
1687Miége ii, Sneering, a kind of ridiculous Laughter. 1847Hare Guesses Ser. i. (ed. 3) 345 Sneering is commonly found along with a bitter, splenetic misanthropy. 1868[see sneer v. 7 b]. 1908Edin. Rev. Oct. 421 The Baron was equal with her in the matter of sneering. b. attrib., as sneering match, E. Angl. dial. a grinning match (Forby, a 1825); sneering muscle, a muscle instrumental in producing a sneering expression on the face (Cent. Dict. 1891). ▪ II. sneering, ppl. a.|ˈsnɪərɪŋ| [f. as prec.] 1. That sneers; wearing a sneer.
1681N. N. Rome's Follies 17, I believe the sneering sluts laugh'd at me. 1695Wood Life 23 Mar., Two snearing and laughing wo[men]. 1716C'tess Cowper Diary (1864) 114 Lord Townshend is the sneeringest, fawningest knave that ever was. 1792M. Wollstonecraft Rights Wom. vii. 285 Thou startest from a dream, only to face a sneering frowning world. 1823Lamb Elia ii. Poor Relations, The streets of this sneering and prying metropolis. 1841Browning Pippa Passes Poems (1905) 168 White sneering old reproachful face. fig.1832L. Hunt Poems 173 The harsh bray The sneering trumpet sends across the fray. 2. Of the nature of, marked or characterized by, a sneer; scornful, contemptuous, disparaging.
1692L'Estrange Fables i. clvi, The Fox in a Snearing Way advis'd him..not to Irritate a Prince against his Subjects. c1695H. Anderson Court Convert 221 You must..With sneering Praise guild o'er his blackest Crimes. 1771Junius Lett. liv. (1788) 293, I..will not descend to answer the little sneering sophistries of a collegian. 1821Scott Kenilw. xli, His countenance presenting..the habitual expression of sneering sarcasm. 1848W. K. Kelly tr. L. Blanc's Hist. Ten Y. II. 316 They were received with a sneering indifference. 1877Dowden Shaks. Primer vi. 78 Greene's sneering allusion to Shakespere in the ‘Groats⁓worth of Wit’. |