Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of rictus
There’s even the demand for NDAs and a magazine photoshoot at the enormous house, with everyone smiling their rictus grins.
—
Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 22 May 2025
Oldman’s features gradually freeze into a rictus of despair, and the lights go out.
—Houman Barekat, New York Times, 28 Apr. 2025
The Mirror and the Light opens with that profoundly disturbing execution, Foy a pale rictus of fear and vulnerability as she is led to the block, where she is blindfolded and positioned before the executioner’s sword.
—Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 20 Mar. 2025
With their teeth bared in a frozen rictus grin, this couple appears to be hiding a darkness which we are left only to guess at.
—Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2025
Distorted and exaggerated by Weegee’s hand—with grins set in a chilling rictus, or eyes and noses spread wide and pancaked—these idols became monsters.
—Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 22 Feb. 2025
The entire final sequence, which sees Carter, with a rictus grin, slaughtering his wife in the kitchen, envisions the self-destruction of the nuclear family.
—Beatrice Loayza, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2025
When Martin dies in class after getting frightened in a dream, the sheet is accidentally pulled off of his gurney to reveal his death rictus.
—Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 17 Dec. 2024
McAvoy’s gift for a rictus grin and a swaggering machismo that eases you into feeling comfortable, only to twist on a 180 into pure psychopathy, is well-played here.
—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 10 Sep. 2024
Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 22 May 2025
Oldman’s features gradually freeze into a rictus of despair, and the lights go out.
—Houman Barekat, New York Times, 28 Apr. 2025
The Mirror and the Light opens with that profoundly disturbing execution, Foy a pale rictus of fear and vulnerability as she is led to the block, where she is blindfolded and positioned before the executioner’s sword.
—Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 20 Mar. 2025
With their teeth bared in a frozen rictus grin, this couple appears to be hiding a darkness which we are left only to guess at.
—Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2025
Distorted and exaggerated by Weegee’s hand—with grins set in a chilling rictus, or eyes and noses spread wide and pancaked—these idols became monsters.
—Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 22 Feb. 2025
The entire final sequence, which sees Carter, with a rictus grin, slaughtering his wife in the kitchen, envisions the self-destruction of the nuclear family.
—Beatrice Loayza, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2025
When Martin dies in class after getting frightened in a dream, the sheet is accidentally pulled off of his gurney to reveal his death rictus.
—Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 17 Dec. 2024
McAvoy’s gift for a rictus grin and a swaggering machismo that eases you into feeling comfortable, only to twist on a 180 into pure psychopathy, is well-played here.
—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 10 Sep. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rictus
Noun
-
But watching a group of roughnecks on a rig in grubby overalls moving huge, long steel pipes, Dugan's smile begins to fade to a smirk.—
Kirk Siegler,
NPR,
24 Apr. 2025
-
Modern thinkers stopped using these concepts altogether except in quotation marks, with a wink, a smirk, and a glance backward toward the unscientific past.—
Isaac Bashevis Singer,
Harpers Magazine,
26 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
And finally, Gi-hun is ready to talk … or sort of snarl under his breath, anyway.—
Jennifer Zhan,
Vulture,
27 June 2025
-
Service may be rendered with a snarl instead of a smile.—
Christopher Elliott,
USA Today,
17 June 2025
Noun
-
Yungblud’s voice — a piercing yelp that exists somewhere between Gerard Way’s wail and Brian Molko’s sneer — slotted him in the alt-rock world, but his aspirations seemed to stretch far beyond that categorization.—
Maura Johnston,
Rolling Stone,
21 June 2025
-
His voice—typically pitched between a bellow and a sneer—was instantly recognizable to the couple that night.—
Air Mail,
Air Mail,
3 May 2025
Noun
-
To keep pace, Hans Zimmer has concocted a visceral new growl that rattles our seats.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
26 June 2025
-
Keitel begins the scene with an intimidating growl and ends it in rueful melancholy.—
Joe Reid,
Vulture,
12 June 2025
Noun
-
Sandoval, in comparison, sneers and simpers to no success whatsoever; his bad behavior, on and off The Traitors, yields nothing.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
20 Feb. 2025
-
Today’s announcement marks the emergence of a new GE, a high-tech industrial GE — simper, stronger, a more focused company at the core.—
Jon Chesto,
BostonGlobe.com,
26 June 2018
Cite this Entry
“Rictus.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rictus. Accessed 11 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share