smirk
/smɜːk/US/smɝk/
smirk noun: an uneven, often crooked smile that is insolent, self-satisfied, conceited or scornful.
Noun
smirk (plural smirks)
- An uneven, often crooked smile that is insolent, self-satisfied, conceited or scornful.
- A forced or affected smile.
- The bride, all smirk and blush, had just entered.1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London...
- We sat at a long table with a huge salmon on a platter in the center, prepared Szechuan style. Dad sat at one end of the table, and regaled all present with his stories. In the middle of one convoluted yarn, he rose and went around to the salmon in the center of the table. Using his fingers, he dug...2003, Brian Herbert, “Xanadu”, in Dreamer of Dune, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 259
- Synonyms:
- simper, shit-eating grin
Verb
smirk (third-person singular simple present smirks, present participle smirking, simple past and past participle smirked)
- To smile in a way that is affected, smug, insolent or contemptuous.
- Synonyms:
- simper
Adjective
smirk (comparative more smirk, superlative most smirk)
smirk meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
smirk in Urdu
- smirk; grin
- مسکراہٹ muskurāhaṭ
smirk in Bengali
- কৃত্রিম, আত্মতুষ্টির হাসি
smirk in Malayalam
- smile smugly, simper, snigger
- പുഞ്ചിരി നടിക്കുക, ഇളിക്കുക, പൊള്ളച്ചിരി ചിരിക്കുക, പല്ലിളിക്കുക, കിരിക്കുക, വികൃതഹാസം ഉല്പാദിപ്പിക്കുക
smirk in Kannada
- ಹುಸಿನಗು, ಕೃತಕನಗೆ ಬೀರು, ಮುಗ್ಧ ಹಾಸ ತಾಳು
More languagesFewer languages
- smirk in Arabic
- إِهْلَاس ʔihlās
Examples of smirk in a sentence
- You should wipe that smirk off your face before the boss comes in.
- She glimpsed at the people whom she had left behind, and smirked in the most disdainful manner towards them.
- She answered his boast with a derisionary smirk.
Synonyms of smirk
Forms of smirk
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | smirks |
| alternative form | smerk |
| alternative form | smirke |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | smirks |
| present participle | smirking |
| past participle | smirked |
| past | smirked |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more smirk |
| superlative | most smirk |
Origin of smirk
From Middle English smirken, from Old English smearcian (“to smile”), corresponding to smerian + -cian (English -k; compare talk and stalk from, respectively, tell and steal). The former element from Proto-Germanic *smarōną (“to mock, scoff at”), and the latter from Proto-Germanic *-kōną. Compare Middle High German smielen/smieren (“to smile”) ( > obsolete, rare German schmieren). Doublet of smile. The specific meaning of a mocking or unpleasant, malicious smile or grin develops in Early Modern English, but until the 18th century, it could still be used to describe a generic smile.
Words formed from smirk
Words that rhyme with smirk
Questions about smirk
- What does smirk mean?
- Smirk means an uneven, often crooked smile that is insolent, self-satisfied, conceited or scornful.
- What is smirk in Urdu?
- Smirk in Urdu is مسکراہٹ (muskurāhaṭ). See Smirk meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is smirk?
- Smirk can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce smirk?
- Smirk is pronounced /smɜːk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of smirk?
- The plural of smirk is smirks.
Words near smirk in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: smirk (page history and authors); مسکراہٹ (Urdu) (page history and authors); smirk (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smirk (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); smirk (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-smirk.wav.
Cite this entry: “smirk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smirk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.