Grin vs Simper - What's the difference?
grin | simper |
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.
To smile in a foolish, frivolous, self-conscious, coy, or smug manner.
* 1892 , , The American Claimant , ch. 21:
* 1915 , , The Voice In The Fog , ch. 24:
(obsolete) To glimmer; to twinkle.
* Herbert
A foolish, frivolous, self-conscious, or affected smile; a smirk.
* 1843 , , Book 2, Ch. 2, "St. Edmundsbury":
* 1972 , , The Levanter (2009 edition), ISBN 9780755117635,
In intransitive terms the difference between grin and simper
is that grin is to smile, parting the lips so as to show the teeth while simper is to smile in a foolish, frivolous, self-conscious, coy, or smug manner.In obsolete terms the difference between grin and simper
is that grin is a snare; a gin while simper is to glimmer; to twinkle.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?’}}
Derived terms
* fish-eating grin * pickin' and grinnin' * shit-eating grinSee also
* grimace * smileEtymology 2
(etyl)Anagrams
* ----simper
English
Verb
(en verb)- Why, look at him—look at this simpering self-righteous mug!
- How the fools kotowed and simpered while I looked over their jewels and speculated upon how much I could get for them!
- Yet can I mark how stars above / Simper and shine.
Noun
(en noun)- Yes, another world it was, when these black ruins, white in their new mortar and fresh chiselling, first saw the sun as walls, long ago. Gauge not, with thy dilettante compasses, with that placid dilettante simper , the Heaven's—Watchtower of our Fathers, the fallen God's—Houses, the Golgotha of true Souls departed!
p. 158:
- He paused, and then a strange expression appeared on his lips. It was very like a simper .