What's the difference between charming and smarmy?

Charming


Definition:

  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Charm
  • (a.) Pleasing the mind or senses in a high degree; delighting; fascinating; attractive.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) However, growing accustomed to “this strange atmosphere”, the Observer man became dazzled by Burgess’s “brilliance and charm”.
  • (2) 133 Hatfield Street, +27 21 462 1430, nineflowers.com The Fritz Hotel Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Fritz is a charming, slightly-faded retreat in a quiet residential street – an oasis of calm yet still in the heart of the city, with the bars and restaurants of Kloof Street five minutes’ walk away.
  • (3) Song appeared to give Bolt a good luck charm to wear around his wrist.
  • (4) We all do different things.” She was front and centre at Ashley’s side in footage shot last week by Sky News cameramen, who were also part of the “selected media” entourage invited to Shirebrook to launch the group’s charm offensive.
  • (5) Bargain of the week Charming but teeny-tiny one-bedroom period cottage, £55,000, with williamsonandhenry.com .
  • (6) The impressive choice of drinks ranges from local cider to unusual rosés from Navarra and punchy Toro and Bierzo reds, all selected by charming Nubia, wife of Juan Mari.
  • (7) The crucial additional feature of his nature, however, was that the apparently guileless charm was accompanied by a razor-sharp shrewdness.
  • (8) I think we are still the underdogs because they have high quality but we will try to do our best – if we lose it’s because Sevilla made a fantastic performance.” As well as missing a penalty Sevilla also hit the woodwork on two occasions, with the Leicester goal living a charmed life at times.
  • (9) In it he translated Trump’s coarse ramblings into charming straight talk and came up with the phrase “truthful hyperbole”, which captures brilliantly an approach to business and politics in which everything is the greatest, the most beautiful.
  • (10) For all Lagarde's charm, it's hard not to feel a sense of Alice In Wonderland bewilderment about the IMF's work.
  • (11) The best charm shows water next to Heaven and then items representing qualities of Air, Earth and Water.
  • (12) For real will-this-do illustrating, look no further than conjoined twins Tip and Tap , although they admittedly boast a certain erstaz charm not seen post- Pique (the much-maligned Goleo VI and Pille the Erudite Ball apart).
  • (13) Seth Smith makes the final out of the A's season, which is a good luck charm for the Boston Red Sox, as Smith made the final out for the Colorado Rockies in the 2007 World Series that Boston won.
  • (14) In the tradition of the American author Patricia Highsmith, creator of the charming psychopath Tom Ripley, Rendell used twisting plots to expose twisted minds.
  • (15) As to Beyoncé herself, Hamilton had nothing but praise: "She is a very smart, serene lady … utterly charming and focused."
  • (16) He strikes me more as a clever man - oh, very clever - than a necessarily charming man; for there's a distance, an aloofness.
  • (17) Lord of the Rings made him the doomed anti-hero , he was easily the best thing in the disastrous Troy, giving Odysseus guile, wit and that familiar, rough-edged charm, and he terrified TV viewers as property developer John Dawson in the dark and brilliant Red Riding .
  • (18) Pauline Kael, when reviewing the film, said, "Jane Fonda has been a charming, witty, nudie cutie in recent years, and now gets a chance at an archetypal character.
  • (19) The former Conservative chief whip Andrew Mitchell was a Jekyll and Hyde character who employed a mixture of charm and menace, his libel trial against the Sun newspaper over the Plebgate affair heard.
  • (20) 5.14pm GMT Alan Pardew speaks ... With a smirk playing around his chops in a charm offensive on Sky Sports, he says he ‘massively regrets” sticking the hid on Hull City midfielder David Meyler and says he’ll be sitting down for matches in the future.

Smarmy


Definition:

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I didn’t go to Eton and get all that smarmy, charming education, I’m afraid.
  • (2) From someone junior at work, “nice dress” can be smarmy; from someone senior, it can be faintly pervy.
  • (3) Pardew has been sent from the touchline and will be in huge trouble for this - a manager with a history of touchline bust-ups against assorted opposite numbers and officials, his usual smarmy post-match apology is highly unlikely to save his bacon this time.
  • (4) After the United Nations reports on war crimes , the supply of Australian vessels to the Sri Lankan Navy to prevent the departure of people who want to escape, and the revelation that a former Sri Lankan military officer was overseeing the interment of Tamil asylum seekers on Manus Island, there was something about the smarminess of the exchange in that picture that caused me additional disgust and embarrassment.
  • (5) Or smarmy seducers wanting the fancy food as close to the bedroom as possible without the expense of a hotel.
  • (6) So the radio spot takes the form of a mock game show, voiced by a smarmy-sounding host who goes under the moniker of Wink Taxandspend (hilarious!).
  • (7) She's very warm but not smarmy, she's never impolite, she has the openness of someone who is never expecting high office – which she isn't, apparently, due to those pesky grammar schools.
  • (8) The Welsh secretary, Peter Hain, said: "We must not behave as if a Tory win is inevitable," and argued that unless the party picked itself up "we might as well wrap conference up now, go home and wait for David Cameron to give that smarmy smile of his from the steps of No 10".