Verb

(en verb)

To make a wry face in contempt, or to grin in scorn; to deride; to sneer; to mock; to gibe.

* 1599 ,

LEONATO. Tush, tush, man! never fleer and jest at me:

I speak not like a dotard nor a fool,

As, under privilege of age, to brag

What I have done being young, or what would do,

Were I not old.

To grin with an air of civility; to leer.

* Latimer

Grinning and fleering as though they went to a bear baiting.

Verb

(intransitive)

(lb) To smile, parting the lips so as to show the teeth.

:

*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=15 citation , passage=‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’}}

(lb) To express by grinning.

:

*(John Milton) (1608-1674)

*:Grinned horrible a ghastly smile.

*

*:"Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins ," remarked Selwyn as he started for church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday supplements, refused to stir; poor little Eileen was now convalescent from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the grippe, and now moaned all day: "Mon dieu! Mon dieu! Che fais mourir! "

To show the teeth, like a snarling dog.

*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

*:The pangs of death do make him grin .

*

*:They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.