smirk
/sməːk
/verb [no object]
Smile in an irritatingly smug, conceited, or silly way: he smirked in triumph...
- As the verdicts were read by the jury foreman some of the defendants smiled, smirked and even giggled.
- I see that a number of the Ministers opposite me are now smiling and smirking.
- The intimidating look from Feror grew fiercer as he smirked with a devious smile.
Synonyms
smile smugly, simper, snigger;
leer
Scottish archaic smicker, smirtle
noun
A smug, conceited, or silly smile: Gloria pursed her mouth in a self-satisfied smirk...
- Those self-satisfied smirks and self-assured snarlings will sooner or later turn to hands begging for forgiveness.
- This certitude explains to this bigot why he has such a self-satisfied smirk in his photo.
- He grinned, and one of those male, self-satisfied smirks slid onto his face.
Derivatives
smirker
- On one side you have a throng of smirkers pointing their fingers and laughing at Bennett, screaming in one collective, shrill voice about the man of virtue having less than stellar virtues.
- There will always be smirkers, but if you realize that you can transcend them and have a hopeful message, you can reach so many people.
- So are they really kindred spirits, or just smirkers? I think at the end of the day, if they can only make fun of other people and not tell us what it is they believe in, then they are perhaps not kindred spirits.
smirkily
- Yes indeed I had fun in Amarillo, despite some comics smirkily telling me that wouldn't be possible.
- You want to say, ‘I planned it that way,’ but a self-betraying, smirkily ironic tone enters your voice.
- This way-out, smirkily comic adventure pits ten-year-old Lily and her friends against whales determined to take over the world.
smirkingly
- I always hated the complacency of the people who smirkingly bragged about being ‘reality-based'. They missed the point of what had been said.
- But oh no, really they are cold-hearted killers, smirkingly focused on their cruel objective, each with a steel-tipped bullet - heading straight for Jennifer Aniston's heart.
- Jude Law plays the smirkingly creepy hit man-cum-press photographer Maguire, who sells gruesome pictures of the dead - a figure partly based on the real-life snapper Weegee.
smirky
- I walked out of the first meeting feeling slightly smirky, presuming that I was safe, but later realised that it wasn't the case after a particularly confronting second one-on-one meeting.
- He looks at me with that little smirky smile, [as if to say] ‘Oh, that sounds good to me.’
- I know full well where you'll be, he thought to himself with a smirky smile.
Origin
Old English sme(a)rcian, from a base shared by smile. The early sense was 'to smile'; it later gained a notion of smugness or silliness.