Word.ws English Dictionary

simpering

simpering adjective: affected, smug, and supercilious. Also the present participle and gerund of simper.

Adjective

simpering (comparative more simpering, superlative most simpering)

  1. Affected, smug, and supercilious.
    • Why, look at him—look at this simpering self-righteous mug!1892, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXI, in The American Claimant, New York, N.Y.: Charles L[uther] Webster & Co., →OCLC, page 214
    • I know they are supposed to be amusing, and you should be tolerant, but I wanted to swing on one, any one, anything to shatter that superior, simpering composure.1926, Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Noun

simpering (plural simperings)

  1. The act of one who simpers.
    • Well, but Polly attended, as I said; and there were strange simperings, and bowing, and courtesying, between them; the honest gentleman seeming not to know how to let his mistress wait upon him[…]1740, Samuel Richardson, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded

Also used as

simpering is also the present participle and gerund of simper.

Examples of simpering in a sentence

  • I had high hopes when I moved to Spyglass, but simpering gossip on celebrity parties seems to be the closest I've gotten so far to Dad's vocation.2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton), →ISBN:
  • I hate sounding simpering, and over a trifling increase of four coppers on a gold, I definitely do not wish to sound simpering.2015, L. E. Modesitt, Jr, Madness in Solidar, →ISBN:

Forms of simpering

Adjective
comparativemore simpering
superlativemost simpering
Noun
pluralsimperings

Words formed from simpering

Phrases with simpering

Questions about simpering

What does simpering mean?
Simpering means affected, smug, and supercilious.
How do you use simpering in a sentence?
I had high hopes when I moved to Spyglass, but simpering gossip on celebrity parties seems to be the closest I've gotten so far to Dad's vocation.
What part of speech is simpering?
Simpering can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near simpering in the dictionary

  1. simper out
  2. simpered
  3. simpered out
  4. simperer
  5. simperers
  6. simpering
  7. simpering out
  8. simperingly
  9. simperings
  10. simpers
  11. simpers out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: simpering (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “simpering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/simpering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.