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Recent Examples of simper
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 Al Capone lived as a schoolyard bully, died in a simper with a brain et by syphilis, and lives on through eternity as a cigarillo mascot and gimme film role for dark-haired white actors who want a chance to really chew some scenery.—Paul Dailing, Chicago Reader, 21 Dec. 2017
Verb
Corden’s Yvan, initially a simpering third wheel, becomes the play’s buoyant center as the evening progresses.—Christopher Barnard, Vogue, 17 Sep. 2025 Edelman brings goofy charm to Adam, a gullible and guileless father of four, while Key is consistently funny as the simpering Ken.—Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly, 3 Sep. 2025 Brewer, particularly, redefines the bullying aristocrat, played in the movie as a simpering sadist, but a more robust, complicated man onstage.—Michael Barnes, Austin American Statesman, 8 July 2025 Franco is simpering when he wasn’t distracted, and while Hathaway brings a bit of spirit, most of her lines are only half-funny.—Bill Wyman, Vulture, 28 Feb. 2025 Didn’t want to be a part of that simpering sorority, a keeper of that shameful secret (for so it was considered at the time), that failure.—Alice McDermott, Harper's Magazine, 11 Sep. 2023 And Grant has made something of a second career out of playing charmingly louche rogues of late, smiling and simpering to perfection as the greedy backstabbing Forge.—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 31 Mar. 2023
Even the simplest design details, like a red smile line hugging a tortoiseshell French tip, or a lipstick-red border outlining each nail, can make a bold statement.
—
Ariel Wodarcyk,
InStyle,
9 Jan. 2026
Looking up at this switched-on electric relic, though, draws out a lopsided smile.
Scott Adams, who kept cubicle denizens laughing for more than three decades with Dilbert, the bitingly funny comic strip that poked fun at the absurdity of corporate life, before racist remarks got him pink-slipped, died Tuesday.
Zohran Mamdani’s genial grin would have seemed unsustainably mild in the angry eighties, when Koch’s sarcasm fenced with Giuliani’s snarl, occasionally relieved by Mario Cuomo’s solemnity.
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Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
12 Jan. 2026
The cheesy grin wasn’t there when Ross was spotted at Hard Rock Stadium on the field before and after games this year.
The bus drivers do nothing to enforce the rules, and we seniors are left trudging down the bus aisle while the people in the seats smirk, look at their phones and talk to each other.
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Judith Martin,
Mercury News,
20 Jan. 2026
In the video, Castela sings these words with a knowing smirk.