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Sneer   /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."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Sneer" Quotes from Famous Books



... twisted to a sneer. "Guess he is. I tried to touch him for two hundred of my own money and he turned me ...
— Sundown Slim • Henry Hubert Knibbs
... a laugh, and half a sneer. I hated him for it, as he sat leaning back on the back legs of his chair, his thumbs in his arm-holes. I felt his eyes—those smart, keen eyes, burning into my miserable head. I thought of the lawyer and the deal he'd give poor Tom, ...
— In the Bishop's Carriage • Miriam Michelson
... was too far gone in his cups to comprehend or even to be curious as to the significance of this sneer and went on sounding his own virtues and Pepeeta's beauty while the judge provoked him to the fullest exhibition of his colossal vanity. He took a sinister delight in drawing him out. It was the pleasure of a cat playing with ...
— The Redemption of David Corson • Charles Frederic Goss
... lamb! Down pitches Madge Winch to help—they did it between them. We who stand aloof admire stupidly. To defend himself from admiring, he condemned the two women for the risk they ran to save a probably broken-legged little beast: and he escaped the melting mood by forcing a sneer at the sort of stuff out of which popular ballads are woven. Carinthia was accused of letting her adventurous impulses and sentimental female compassion swamp thought of a mother's duties. If both those women had broken their legs the child might have cried itself ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... what they were told, men used to vow at their feet that there was nothing they couldn't accomplish, their influence was so great. But now that women have proved that what they choose to do they can do, men sneer at their pretensions to power, and try to depreciate them by comparing the average woman with men in the front rank of their ...
— The Beth Book - Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius • Sarah Grand


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