SNEER • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Sneer

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/snɪr/ Listen

noun

Sneer n.

1.

The act of sneering.

2.

A smile, grin, or contortion of the face, indicative of contempt; an indirect expression or insinuation of contempt. "Who can refute a sneer?"

verb

Sneer v. t.

1.

To utter with a grimace or contemptuous expression; to utter with a sneer; to say sneeringly; as, to sneer fulsome lies at a person. ""A ship of fools," he sneered."

2.

To treat with sneers; to affect or move by sneers. "Nor sneered nor bribed from virtue into shame."

Sneer v. i. (past & past part. sneered; pres. part. sneering)

1.

To show contempt by turning up the nose, or by a particular facial expression.

2.

To inssinuate contempt by a covert expression; to speak derisively. "I could be content to be a little sneared at."

3.

To show mirth awkwardly. (R.)

Synonyms: To scoff; gibe; jeer. Sneer, Scoff, Jeer. The verb to sneer implies to cast contempt indirectly or by covert expressions. To jeer is stronger, and denotes the use of several sarcastic reflections. To scoff is stronger still, implying the use of insolent mockery and derision. "And sneers as learnedly as they, Like females o'er their morning tea." "Midas, exposed to all their jeers, Had lost his art, and kept his ears." "The fop, with learning at defiance, Scoffs at the pedant and science."

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Etymology of 'Sneer'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sneer" Quotes from Famous Books

... from the society of the angel of his life, was also at the front door, and saw the contemptuous smile. Instantly a new and powerful emotion swept over his being in the shape of a strong feeling of fellowship for Lancaster. It made his soul boil with indignation to see the sneer which the Austrian directed toward the young man, a thoroughly fine young man, who, by said foreigner's monkeyful impudence, and another's mistaken favor, had been made a brother-in-misfortune of himself, ...

— The Captain's Toll-Gate • Frank R. Stockton

... said he was a woman," added Montigny with a sneer. "Sit up, can't you?" he went on, giving another shake to the murdered body. ...

— New Arabian Nights • Robert Louis Stevenson

... a subject of reproach, that in this Christendom of ours, the theory of good we preach should be so far in advance of our practice; but that which provokes the sneer of the skeptic, and almost kills faith in the sufferer, lifts up the contemplative mind with hope. Man's theory of good is God's reality; man's experience is the degree to which he has already worked out, in his human capacity, that divine reality. Therefore, ...

— Brave Men and Women - Their Struggles, Failures, And Triumphs • O.E. Fuller

... Dorothy of her interview with Richard; she appeared to believe that Richard had saved her that labor. There was a kind of sneer in this. Feeling the sneer, Dorothy put no questions; she was willing, in her resentment, to have it understood that Richard had told her. Why should he not?—she who was to be his wife! Dorothy would have been proud to proclaim her troth ...

— The President - A novel • Alfred Henry Lewis

... that you seek the general for some ulterior purpose," he said with a sneer, and, before Chester realized what he was about to do, the officer raised his hand and slapped him soundly across the face. "Take them away," he ...

— The Boy Allies in the Trenches - Midst Shot and Shell Along the Aisne • Clair Wallace Hayes

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