What's the difference between grin and smile?

Grin


Definition:

  • (n.) A snare; a gin.
  • (v. i.) To show the teeth, as a dog; to snarl.
  • (v. i.) To set the teeth together and open the lips, or to open the mouth and withdraw the lips from the teeth, so as to show them, as in laughter, scorn, or pain.
  • (v. t.) To express by grinning.
  • (n.) The act of closing the teeth and showing them, or of withdrawing the lips and showing the teeth; a hard, forced, or sneering smile.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "It is incredibly hard work," she says with a sly grin.
  • (2) There was nothing accidental about Saffiyah Khan’s easy nonchalance, grinning through the spitting rage of Ian Crossland at the EDL rally in Birmingham city centre at the weekend; Ieshia Evans knew there was more power in calm when she approached the police in Baton Rouge last summer.
  • (3) Then Obama himself swooped in with a big bear hug around Giffords's tiny frame, grinning widely before climbing to the rostrum for the speech.
  • (4) Thank you for your encouragement and good wishes,” Ma Jing, the director general of CCTV America, told the president, flanked by a number of grinning American staff.
  • (5) Who can complain of physical fear, of the nightmare of a baby eating its way out of your abdomen, of the loss of professional autonomy, staring at a stranger's idiotic grin?
  • (6) I have a self-satisfied grin just thinking about these expressions.
  • (7) People take pictures of themselves wherever they go, from cathedrals to airports to funerals , always the same face grinning at the camera.
  • (8) The thing that had me cracking up all night long is, I go through 20 years of everybody screaming to pass the ball,” Bryant said with a grin.
  • (9) Putin could have been forgiven for allowing himself a wry grin, as another court comprehensively trashed Berezovsky's reputation.
  • (10) The new No8 allowed a slight grin to creep over his face, seemingly struggling to contain his excitement.
  • (11) She reminds me of the time David was ridiculed for being photographed grinning inanely with a banana.
  • (12) Asked about his repeated gestures, grins and smirks towards the victims, she said it brought back memories of seeing him at Srebrenica.
  • (13) The final seconds of the movie are the most memorable, in which Smokey assures Big Worm he’s going to rehab, before hanging up the phone and lighting a joint with a mischievous grin to the camera.
  • (14) After Second World War army service, his physique, graceful carriage and radiant grin took him from lift attendant to Broadway and instant movie stardom in The Killers (1946).
  • (15) "We couldn't believe our eyes," grinned Shamad, recalling the sight of Tunisia's ousted despot, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, fleeing a land he had ruled for 23 years.
  • (16) "I have no idea," Farage barked back with something between a grin and a scowl.
  • (17) During mimetic actions, such as wrinkling the forehead, closing the eyes, blinking, grinning and blowing out the cheeks, EMG from 16 disk electrodes were concurrently recorded from the frontalis, orbicularis oculi, and orbicularis oris muscles on both sides.
  • (18) We’ll definitely show that on the day.” There was a twinkle in his eye and a slight grin on his face but Bale, make no mistake, was deadly serious.
  • (19) For Cohn, a teddy boy at heart, neither came close to the glamour and speed fix of the rapidly receding “golden age” he wrote about with such dash: Elvis’s “great ducktail plume and lopsided grin”, Phil Spector’s “beautiful noise”, and James Brown, “the outlaw, the Stagger Lee of his time”.
  • (20) There are pictures of firefighters, policemen, soldiers and members of the public, some grinning and holding up placards celebrating Bin Laden's execution.

Smile


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To express amusement, pleasure, moderate joy, or love and kindness, by the features of the face; to laugh silently.
  • (v. i.) To express slight contempt by a look implying sarcasm or pity; to sneer.
  • (v. i.) To look gay and joyous; to have an appearance suited to excite joy; as, smiling spring; smiling plenty.
  • (v. i.) To be propitious or favorable; to favor; to countenance; -- often with on; as, to smile on one's labors.
  • (v. t.) To express by a smile; as, to smile consent; to smile a welcome to visitors.
  • (v. t.) To affect in a certain way with a smile.
  • (v. i.) The act of smiling; a peculiar change or brightening of the face, which expresses pleasure, moderate joy, mirth, approbation, or kindness; -- opposed to frown.
  • (v. i.) A somewhat similar expression of countenance, indicative of satisfaction combined with malevolent feelings, as contempt, scorn, etc; as, a scornful smile.
  • (v. i.) Favor; countenance; propitiousness; as, the smiles of Providence.
  • (v. i.) Gay or joyous appearance; as, the smiles of spring.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But mention the words "eurozone crisis" to other Finns, and you could be rewarded with little more than a confused, albeit friendly, smile.
  • (2) But after 26.2 miles of pain it may be harder to keep that smile on his face.
  • (3) Speed's mother said she had watched again some television footage of her son before his death and realised his smile didn't seem genuine as "it didn't extend to his eyes".
  • (4) But there she sits with a strained smile as he serenades her before an audience of millions.
  • (5) I remind him that he had been unhappy with the penalty awarded to Barcelona in the Champions League game at Wembley last season, and he smiles.
  • (6) He was a fixture at Trump rallies, where he met chants of “Lock her up” against Hillary Clinton with a smile.
  • (7) I didn’t see him tonight,” smiled the alderman.
  • (8) Gough, as the degenerate black sheep of an English family trying to blackmail an American adulterer, would curl a long lip into a sneering smile, which became a characteristic of this fine actor's style.
  • (9) That’s before you even begin to consider the sort of outfits, polite eating and staged photos that guarantee I end up with a bleeding foot, skirt tucked into my knickers, mint in my teeth and a fixed smile last seen on a taxidermied pike.
  • (10) "Anne Hathaway at least tried to sing and dance and preen along to the goings on, but Franco seemed distant, uninterested and content to keep his Cheshire-cat-meets-smug smile on display throughout."
  • (11) But that doesn't mean that I can't make jokes about it, or help noticing the smiles on women's faces whenever this case is mentioned.
  • (12) "He would say he was a peaceful man, whose smile gives hope."
  • (13) When he smiles, he looks as cute and gummy as a newborn.
  • (14) I know I am loved by some clubs, especially one, and in Spain the situation is a bit different because some people hate me," Mourinho continued, adding with a smile: "And many of you are in this room."
  • (15) Expressions that included muscular activity around the eyes in addition to the smiling lips occurred more often when people were actually enjoying themselves as compared with when enjoyment was feigned to conceal negative emotions.
  • (16) Blue jean baby, LA lady, seamstress for the band Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you’ll marry a music man Ballerina, you must have seen her, dancing in the sand And now she’s in me, always with me, tiny dancer in my hand For a moment it seemed possible that the person about to get out of the plane was a man of subtle taste and kindness, a man who could appreciate such beauty, who was secure enough in himself to set his arrival in Sacramento to the soundtrack of a 45-year-old song by a gay troubadour.
  • (17) Singh said a smiling Mandela had asked "Is that me?"
  • (18) He smiled enigmatically when the questions turned to Greece and the possibility of a country leaving the euro, before dismissing such talk as "not being the working assumption of mine or any government".
  • (19) He was alive, he was walking unaided, and he was smiling.
  • (20) While there are smiles in the Ennis-Hill household, the organisers of the Commonwealth Games will be ruing the loss of a major star – especially as Britain's 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah has admitted that the games are "not on my list" for 2014, and the 100m world record holder Usain Bolt is yet to commit.