- sarcastic
- sarcastic, *satiric, ironic, sardonic can mean having or manifesting bitterness and power to cut or sting.A person, a mood, a remark, or an expression is sarcastic when he or it manifests an intent to inflict pain by deriding, taunting, or making ridiculous{
sarcastic comments on an actor's performance
}{the atmosphere is less chilly and sarcastic, more warm and compassionate— Orville Prescott
}{she was accepted ... as one of them. The sarcastic nickname she had been tagged with, "Sweetness and Light," fell into disuse— Wouk
}A person or his utterance, expression, or spirit is satiric when he or it manifests the intent to censure someone or something by holding him or it up for ridicule and reprobation{hers was the rarest of satiric gifts. She . . . could ridicule without wounding— S.R.L.
}{all this comedy was filled with bitter satiric strokes against a certain young lady— Thackeray
}Not only a person or an utterance, mood, or expression but also a situation or an event may be described as ironic when he or it manifests the power to evoke amused but often startled or unpleasant reflection on the difference between what is said and what is intended or between what happens and what was aimed at or what was expected{how his [Fielding's] ironic lightning plays around a rogue and all his ways \—Dobson
}{how exquisitely ironic is the entertainment we can derive from our disillusions— L. P. Smith
}{it is an ironic likelihood that had he written less he would be held in higher esteem— D. S. Davis
}A person or more often a person's smile, expression, or words may be described as sardonic when he or it manifests scorn, mockery, and derision{an eccentric, gangling man, whose sardonic wit somewhat compensated for his shallow mind— Shirer
}{got a sardonic twist to his mouth, the way of a man who feels that the breaks are against him— Mary Austin
}{came to the funeral, full of calm, sardonic glee, and without being asked— Bennett
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
