as in to grimace
to smile in an unpleasant way because you are pleased with yourself, glad about someone else's trouble, etc.
She tried not to smirk when they announced the winner.
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Recent Examples of smirk
Jack Denton, Vulture, 6 Oct. 2025
Hedda’s smirk speaks volumes as the film flashes back to that fateful night.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 9 Sep. 2025
Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2025
Cary Grant built a career on smirking suavity; Cate Blanchett has made an art form of falling apart with tragic intensity.
—Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for smirk
Verb
Most of the book’s roughly 100 characters have names worth at least a smirk, including Thessalie Wayward, Boynt Crosstown, and Don Peppino Infernacci.
—Jack Denton, Vulture, 6 Oct. 2025
Hedda’s smirk speaks volumes as the film flashes back to that fateful night.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 9 Sep. 2025
Noun
The Poets smirking at us in the garden, their coats blowing open like bat wings.
—Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2025
Cary Grant built a career on smirking suavity; Cate Blanchett has made an art form of falling apart with tragic intensity.
—Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for smirk
Recent Examples of Synonyms for smirk
Verb
-
After taking a fastball on the knee in the fifth game of the series, outfield veteran George Springer returned to the starting lineup on Sunday and was noticeably limping and grimacing during his at-bats.—
Peter Chawaga,
MSNBC Newsweek,
20 Oct. 2025
-
Twenty-three games are too soon to declare anything, but Coleman already has a grimacing reputation to shake.—
Tim Graham,
New York Times,
16 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Anderson plunges the audience into the rebels’ point of view, immersing us in the recalcitrant pride and swagger of Perfidia Beverly Hills, a revolutionary leader played by Teyana Taylor with a hypnotic sneer of defiance.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
17 Sep. 2025
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Jacob sneers, but doesn’t even wait for his son to answer.—
Kimberly Roots,
TVLine,
15 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
Sean Monahan, Voronkov and others came up empty on point-blank opportunities that left them staring into the rafters or yelling at the ice in frustration.—
Aaron Portzline,
New York Times,
25 Oct. 2025
-
Then, in the 1980s, Anne stared as Veronica Rooney on the hit sitcom Archie Bunker’s Place, a role that added two more Emmy nods to her roster.—
Lynsey Eidell,
PEOPLE,
24 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Early never makes fun of Maddie, never lets the audience snicker at the screen.—
Sam Bodrojan,
IndieWire,
7 Sep. 2025
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The carnage leads to a sigh of an epilogue that seems, without giving anything away, like a curious letdown, a cruel little snicker from Aster that doesn’t entirely satisfy.—
Randy Myers,
Mercury News,
15 July 2025
Verb
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However, there has been a growing edge to Denver’s current group, personified on the field in the way safety Talanoa Hufanga flies to the ball and in the way Cooper scowls under his eye black.—
Nick Kosmider,
New York Times,
17 Oct. 2025
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Now our favorite scowling friend is getting his own movie, too.—
Elisabeth Sherman,
Parents,
15 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Each time an audience member so much as sniggers or sneezes, money is docked from a prize pot of £250,000 ($330,000), the slightest noise costing them up to £10,000 ($13,000) each time.—
Alex Ritman,
Variety,
2 May 2025
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This offbeat comedy, which originally ran from 2007-10, thrives on less explicit social tensions: sniggers behind the back and raised eyebrows at the dinner table.—
The Economist,
The Economist,
26 Dec. 2019
Verb
-
Brown continues to make backers frown.—
Brad Evans,
New York Times,
17 Oct. 2025
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Sitting on a purple-and-gold sofa, Mamdani tasted his biryani and frowned.—
Eric Lach,
New Yorker,
9 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Smirk.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/smirk. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.
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