Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use smarmy in a sentence

10 example sentences · adjective

Smarmy means falsely earnest, smug, ingratiating, or pious. Example: “I'm sick of your smarmy comments.”

Examples of smarmy by meaning

adjectiveFalsely earnest, smug, ingratiating, or pious.

  • a smarmy salesman with a big smile
  • I'm sick of your smarmy comments.1999 November 1, David Regal, “Cropsey Clanners” (12:11 from the start), in Downtown, season 1, episode 12, spoken by Alex Henson (Gregory...
  • Starring a smarmy dog and scores of hapless flying wildfowl, Duck Hunt was the game that introduced many to the joys of the NES Zapper lightgun.2019, “Ultimate Guide: Duck Hunt”, in Darran Jones, editor, 100 Games to Play Before You Die: Nintendo Consoles Edition (Retro Gamer), 3rd...

adjectiveUnctuous, greasy, as hair from pomade.

  • He looked faintly loutish, with smarmy hair and a hint of a moustache.1985, Lynn Pan, Into China's Heart: An Emigré's Journey Along the Yellow River, page 200
  • I pulled on my smarmy t-shirt and my ragged jeans and dragged myself to report to my supervisor.2002 October, Austin Branstetter, "My day as a Carnie" Top of the Hill (Montgomery Bell Academy) Vol.8 No.1 p.4

More sentences with smarmy

  • They lipsynch the soundtrack, cadge souvenirs and pester you with smarmy, show-off questions.2003, Cory Doctorow, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Tor Books. From the entry show-off
  • Hampton delves into all sortsa cultural rootage — from country blues to smarmy Broadway show-tunage, combining them in a friendly, swinging way.1988 June, “Underground”, in Spin, page 32. From the entry delve
  • Edge Of Tomorrow, Doug Liman’s click-clacky sci-fi take on Groundhog Day, stars Tom Cruise as a smarmy press flack who gets stuck in a time loop during an alien invasion.2014 June 5, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Edge Of Tomorrow puts Tom Cruise through an action-packed Groundhog Day”, in AV Club. From the entry time loop
  • The Baltimore partymeister Dan Deacon has become an underground celebrity playing the kind of music Max Headroom might have made, with low-tech synthesizers pumping manic, smarmy melodies at high volume.2007 July 6, The New York Times, “Pop and Rock Listings”, in New York Times. From the entry partymeister
  • No one addressed these issues when I posed this question some smarmy, smooth talking lecturer reiterated as if I were some innocent who had just woken up from my cradle.1999, Marianna Sheldrake, The Crystal Healer, →ISBN. From the entry smooth talking

Meaning of smarmy

  1. adjective Falsely earnest, smug, ingratiating, or pious.
  2. adjective Unctuous, greasy, as hair from pomade.

Full definition of smarmy

Questions about smarmy in a sentence

How do you use smarmy in a sentence?
Smarmy is used as an adjective. For example: “I'm sick of your smarmy comments.”
What is a short sentence with smarmy?
“I'm sick of your smarmy comments.”
What does smarmy mean?
Smarmy means falsely earnest, smug, ingratiating, or pious.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smarmy (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use smarmy in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/smarmy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.