Example Sentences
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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
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
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
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
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
-
In the quarter millennium since, scholars and activists have in different ways done their damnedest to wipe the smirk off his face.—
Jane Kamensky,
The Atlantic,
10 Oct. 2025
-
Coach Ben Johnson began Week 6 with a smirk when asked about the position.—
Kevin Fishbain,
New York Times,
8 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
The result has been a seemingly endless run of East Washington Street roadwork and traffic snarls from Alabama Street downtown to I-465.—
Ryan Murphy,
IndyStar,
25 Sep. 2025
-
There was talk of traffic snarls and strain on the power grid.—
Christopher Bonanos,
Curbed,
24 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Jacob sneers, but doesn’t even wait for his son to answer.—
Kimberly Roots,
TVLine,
15 Aug. 2025
-
The single, meanwhile, is ushered in with a gripping bass line and an undercurrent of keyboards until Osbourne makes his grand vocal entrance, all sneers and snarls.—
Melissa Ruggieri,
USA Today,
23 July 2025
Noun
-
My poetry began as a father’s sly growl, became a spectacle on a rickety stage washed in limelight, and now is a 70-year-old woman’s walk back into a thousand yesterdays.—
Via Scribner,
Literary Hub,
6 Oct. 2025
-
The scents of soy, garlic, and mirin made Charlie’s stomach growl.—
Maureen Lee Lenker,
Entertainment Weekly,
19 Sep. 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
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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 13 Oct. 2025.
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