What's the difference between grimace and smirk?

Grimace


Definition:

  • (n.) A distortion of the countenance, whether habitual, from affectation, or momentary aad occasional, to express some feeling, as contempt, disapprobation, complacency, etc.; a smirk; a made-up face.
  • (v. i.) To make grimaces; to distort one's face; to make faces.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) When I commiserate about the overnight flight that brought them here, Linney gives a wry grimace.
  • (2) The authors describe two cases of tardive dyskinesia in which severe axial dystonia and intense facial grimacing produced marked discomfort as well as social and physical disability.
  • (3) At the time of presentation the child exhibited dilated pupils, ataxia, urinary retention, and facial grimacing.
  • (4) Typically, their ongoing ward behavior consisted of very low level activity, involving small peripheral limb movements, wandering or blinking eyes, mouthing or grimacing, and repetitive, reflexive types of patterns labeled "fixed action sequences."
  • (5) Subjects were placed alone in a room where purposeful oral activity such as eating, talking and smoking was not permitted, while activity such as pursing the lips sucking on cheeks, grimaces etc was measured by a specially designed electromyometer.
  • (6) Where there were pictures of powerful women, the images tended to be subversive: the same photograph of a grimacing Theresa May was used to illustrate three different stories about the home secretary, and two of the three pictures of the German chancellor showed Angela Merkel puffing out her cheeks, looking mildly absurd.
  • (7) This manifests itself as a bit of a grimace when a kiddie pops up in front of his gun, a tut when colleagues show a lack of concern for collateral damage. "
  • (8) Madrid artist Deno is oblivious to the grimacing, concentrating on needling a giant scaly fish into his chest.
  • (9) We are preparing to erect a tent city close to the border.” Silva Ali, 10, grimaces as she swallows the polio vaccine administered, then sticks out her tongue.
  • (10) Case 1 (proband): A 28-year-old man was hospitalized because of facial grimace, dysarthria, and generalized dystonia.
  • (11) See how much I look like Eric!” he said, grimacing.
  • (12) Mild or severe discomfort, in the form of straining, stretching, arching, grimacing, writhing, shaking, doubling up, eye closure and restlessness is reported in 69 cases.
  • (13) When I tell friends I'm going to meet him, they grimace and roll their eyes.
  • (14) According to official witnesses, Angel Diaz strained against the straps, grimaced and attempted to mouth words for nearly a half-hour after the start of the procedure.
  • (15) Yet here they stand, a reality-TV star turning it on for the camera, his unnaturally white teeth bearing a smile – or is it a grimace?
  • (16) After 3 and 12 months, respectively, two of the cebus monkeys developed buccolingual signs (grimacing and tongue protrusion), similar to tardive dyskinesia in the clinic.
  • (17) As her energetic terriers Benny and Buddy squabble, nipping and harassing half a dozen other spaniels and terriers tearing after tennis balls on the softly sloping hill that marks the Battle of Bannockburn, Gail NcNeill looks up at the greatest hero of Scottish independence and grimaces.
  • (18) The Queen's perma-grimace belied her true feelings.
  • (19) After all, she asks, before proceeding to pose for the camera with two crab-shaped balloons, grimacing and spitting sexual innuendos ("Crabbbbbbbbbbbssss!
  • (20) The responses consisted of an immediate withdrawal of both the affected and unaffected leg, followed by facial grimacing and crying.

Smirk


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To smile in an affected or conceited manner; to smile with affected complaisance; to simper.
  • (n.) A forced or affected smile; a simper.
  • (a.) Nice,; smart; spruce; affected; simpering.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) 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.
  • (2) If Kyrgios cares about his career – and sometimes he is so blase about his success, wealth and celebrity he professes to hate tennis – the hip young dude from Canberra who smirks when he should be smiling, who plainly is struggling with fame, needs to understand he is not the only clown in town.
  • (3) He often seems mysteriously amused, cocking an eyebrow and pulling a coy, wouldn’t-you-like-to-know smirk, but he likes to laugh out loud, too.
  • (4) Asked about his repeated gestures, grins and smirks towards the victims, she said it brought back memories of seeing him at Srebrenica.
  • (5) "Now we know our fortresses are secure," says their president, Tim Farron, a smirk of triumph in his voice, "we can collect 25 or 30 more Tory seats."
  • (6) They get angry at the justice minister’s smirk as he refutes “any security gap” when in fact the bombs exploded close to an interior ministry building and the headquarters of the Turkish national intelligence organisations.
  • (7) He has a way of holding a half-smile on his face while listening to his opponent that appears perilously close to a smirk.
  • (8) It can take all of a parent's ingenuity to get though a shopping trip without unwillingly picking up a tin of Barbie spaghetti shapes, a box of cereal with Lightning McQueen smirking from the front, or a bag of fruit chews with a catchy jingle.
  • (9) His bastard Ramsay has shown his colors (whatever color is for sadism), but Roose – who abstains from alcohol and only offers a smirk at Lady Stark here, a frown with Jaime Lannister there – is still a cypher.
  • (10) Bidisha : Two sexist remarks and one misogynist one At a major literary festival, before an event about military fiction, a posh famous English author smirked to me, "What's the difference between a woman and a piece of toast?
  • (11) I saw the smirk, too, when I went on the road with Prince and the Revolution two years later, accompanying the 1999 tour on several dates through the Midwest.
  • (12) They might have been even more shaken had they known that the men in casual clothes handing them these strange, badly set little pamphlets – with their funereal black borders and another death’s head leering at them inside next to the smirking wish “Good luck” – were members of New York’s police forces.
  • (13) With such knowledge comes a predictable illusion of power, though this is all too regularly punctured by the indignity of being kicked out of shiny receptions and told to use an entrance more befitting of our lowly status – or of having my pronunciation of “Southwark Street” incorrectly corrected by a receptionist, who gives her colleague a sidelong smirk, commiserating over my supposed ignorance.
  • (14) When I look at their faces, I see nothing but bravado, whether it’s Beyoncé’s stoicism, Kerry Washington’s smirk or Serena’s confidence.
  • (15) The camera cuts to Groves in the audience, who is smirking at Froch's words.
  • (16) Leonardo DiCaprio plays Calvin Candie, the sadistic plantation owner, smirking into the zoom lens.
  • (17) A political debate that revolves around sniggering at women’s body parts and smirks about gay hairdressers?
  • (18) On another occasion, as the judge addressed Mladic about the procedure, the defendant appeared to switch off and turned to the victims again, smirking and nodding at them.
  • (19) On Thursday, she was pictured semi-naked on the cover of the Daily Star, a cut out of the heads of presenters Ant and Dec over each of her breasts, above a smirking caption claiming that "Naughty Nadine Dorries has boobed again!"
  • (20) The Catholic father in Ken Loach's Jimmy's Hall is just the most implacable enemy of nice-as-pie communists showing everyone a good time; the village imam in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Winter Sleep is an ingratiating, smirking creep; and the local rev in The Homesman (as played by John Lithgow) is definitely a weasel, rather too obviously grateful not to have to transport three traumatised frontierwomen back east.