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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
That same ear-to-ear grin has captured a growing audience as the Gen-Z rapper parlays digital trends into real-life success, and this is only the beginning.
For her part, the first lady nearly managed a smirk.
—
Tony Maglio,
HollywoodReporter,
29 Apr. 2026
In those heady decades of postmodern language-play and seductive irresolution, claims for literature as a force for truth and justice would likely be dismissed, with a smirk, as humanist pieties.