What is the difference between grin and grimace?
grin | grimace |
A smile in which the lips are parted to reveal the teeth.
* 1997, Linda Howard, Son of the Morning, Simon & Schuster, pages 364:
(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 (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.
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
To make grimaces; to distort one's face; to make faces.
As nouns the difference between grin and grimace
is that grin is a smile in which the lips are parted to reveal the teeth while 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.As verbs the difference between grin and grimace
is that grin is to smile, parting the lips so as to show the teeth while grimace is to make grimaces; to distort one's face; to make faces.grin
English
Etymology 1
Before 1000 CE - From (etyl) grinnen, from (etyl) grennian; compare to (etyl)Noun
(en noun)- When the ceremony was finished a wide grin''' broke across his face, and it was that '''grin she saw, relieved and happy all at once.
Verb
(intransitive)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?’}}