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Grimace vs Girn - What's the difference?

grimace | girn |

As nouns the difference between grimace and girn

is that grimace is a distortion of the countenance, whether habitual, from affectation, or momentary and occasional, to express some feeling, as contempt, disapprobation, complacency, etc; a smirk; a made-up face while girn is a vocalization similar to a cat's purring.

As verbs the difference between grimace and girn

is that grimace is to make grimaces; to distort one's face; to make faces while girn is (label) to grimace; to snarl.

grimace

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A distortion of the countenance, whether habitual, from affectation, or momentary and occasional, to express some feeling, as contempt, disapprobation, complacency, etc.; a smirk; a made-up face.
  • * "I trundle off to bed, eyes brimming, face twisted into a grateful glistening grimace , and awaken the next day wondering what all the fuss was about." — Opera News , March 2005
  • Verb

    (grimac)
  • To make grimaces; to distort one's face; to make faces.
  • girn

    English

    Alternative forms

    * gurn * gurne

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To grimace; to snarl.
  • *1999 , (Jessica Stirling), The Wind from the Hills , St Martin's Press.
  • To whinge, moan, complain.
  • *2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, p. 107:
  • (label) To make elaborate unnatural and distorted faces as a form of amusement or in a girning competition.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A vocalization similar to a cat's purring.
  • *2002 , edited by Richard J. Davidson, Handbook of Affective Sciences , Oxford University Press, p. 569:
  • A different vocalization, a girn, simiular to a cat's purring, was observed in infants reunited with their mothers...

    See also

    * gowl

    Anagrams

    * * *