smile

smile vb Smile, grin, simper, smirk are comparable as verbs meaning to express amusement or pleasure or satisfaction or, sometimes, contempt or indulgence, by a brightening of the eyes and an upward curving of the corners of the mouth and as nouns denoting such an expression.

Smile is the general term, capable of being qualified so as to suggest malign as well as benign pleasure or amusement

{

smile tenderly

}

{

smile derisively

}

{

a bright smile

}

{

she wears a fixed smile . . . and it never varies, no matter to whom she speaks. I never heard her laugh spontaneously— Mills

}

{

she smiled slowly then, the same slow smile that ended before it reached her eyes— Buck

}

Grin implies a broad smile that shows the teeth. It often carries some suggestion of grimacing in anger or pain in its not infrequent implication of unnaturalness, of bewilderment, or senselessness

{

they could not see the bitter smile behind the painted grin he wore— Sill

}

More often, however, grin tends to imply naive cheerfulness, mirth, or impishness

{

she saw too clearly now that what had been his weary, decadent smile, was, after all, simply a boyish grin— Terry Southern

}

{

did a little prancing jig on his toes to show how fit he was, then he looked up at me and grinned— Dahl

}

{

how cheerfully he seems to grin, how neatly spreads his claws, and welcomes little fishes in with gently smiling jaws!— Lewis Carroll

}

Simper implies a silly, affected, or languishing smile

{

so much vanity and outmoded affectation. The thin lips are curved into a simper that is the worst of all possible substitutes for a smile— Horace Gregory

}

{

it was Ellen who came off best, bearing all the laurels, with all the simpering critics trotting attendance— Bromfield

}

Smirk, too, suggests affectation together with self-conscious complacency or embarrassment

{

had grown so conceited that he wouldn't deign to talk to his brother; he kept fussing and smirking around his father all the time— Rolvaag

}

{

the solemnity of the ceremony was broken by smirks, whispered jokes and repressed titters— Graves

}

{

a few smirked ... as if they had been caught coming out of a bawdy house— G ruber

}

Antonyms: frown

smile n simper, smirk, grin (see under SMILE vb)

Antonyms: frown