(v. i.) To show contempt by turning up the nose, or by a particular facial expression.
(v. i.) To inssinuate contempt by a covert expression; to speak derisively.
(v. i.) To show mirth awkwardly.
(v. t.) To utter with a grimace or contemptuous expression; to utter with a sneer; to say sneeringly; as, to sneer fulsome lies at a person.
(v. t.) To treat with sneers; to affect or move by sneers.
(n.) The act of sneering.
(n.) A smile, grin, or contortion of the face, indicative of contempt; an indirect expression or insinuation of contempt.
Example Sentences:
(1) He made his political base in this western province, which has long felt sneered at: Harper has spent his political career redressing the balance.
(2) 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.
(3) Comment is perfectly legitimate, but the sneering, supercilious, specious and dismissive contributions masquerading as ‘commentary’ belittle the claims of a ‘quality’ paper.” Before attempting to assess the validity of the reader’s analysis – broadly shared by some other readers – I think his email reflects one or two other interesting aspects of the demographics of the Guardian’s readership and the left.
(4) Webb agreed, calling Miliband "irresponsible" for "stirring up cheap headlines", sneering: "Why doesn't the government set a price cap on a tin of beans?"
(5) I think it's a good thing that comedians want to exploit (and relieve) our anxieties about what's sayable – but only if we as audiences become bolder in opposing comedy that bullies, comedy that sneers at the vulnerable and the under-represented, comedy that feels, in Herring's words, "like being at school and going, 'Ha ha, you're a spastic.'"
(6) Over the years the Oscars have been variously coveted and sneered at, have increasingly brought box-office value and personal prestige, become a media obsession, a gauge of industrial morale and a way of taking the national pulse.
(7) It has sneered at the 1906 reforms of Lloyd George , who recognised that 19th-century philanthropy (which was always pretty judgmental and selective) was no longer adequate for a modern industrial country.
(8) Merkel grimly submitted to an executive fashion makeover after the media sneered at her frumpy look; now she clearly relishes shining out in jewel-toned jackets from a forest of dark suits at G20 meetings.
(9) At which point – obviously – you reach the stubborn limits of the debate: from even the most supposedly imaginative Labour people as much as any Tories, such heresies would presumably be greeted with sneering derision.
(10) This is so corny, what I'm saying, but I feel obliged to drone on about it, because before we reach the tipping point, it's time to stop sneering at fat people, being disapproving and bossing them about: walk to work, eat your greens, control yourselves.
(11) Henry Barnes The clergy may not be entirely trustworthy This may not be big news to cinemagoers – sneering at religious types goes all the way back to DW Griffith's Intolerance – but Cannes boasts an impressively ecumenical approach.
(12) Chindamo's trial, the following year, heard how the teenager, who came to Britain from Italy at the age of five, sneered as he slapped, punched and then stabbed the headteacher.
(13) Oh, but now this is highfalutin identity politics to be sneered at along with your safe spaces and trigger warnings.
(14) Hours after Tuesday’s bomb attack on a tourist area of Istanbul , Erdoğan delivered a sneering criticism of Chomsky and “so-called intellectuals” who had signed a letter calling on Turkey to end the “deliberate massacre” of Kurdish people in the south east of the country, He invited Chomsky to visit the area in a defiant televised speech to a conference of Turkish ambassadors in Ankara.
(15) "I always hated the expression anyway, mostly because I encountered it in stupid or sneering contexts."
(16) Naturally, Michael Gove , former Times columnist, responded to the thousands of economists who warned he was taking an extraordinary risk with the sneer that will follow him to his grave: “People in this country have had enough of experts.” He’s been saying the same for years.
(17) It is easy to sneer at the journalistic concept of the Angry Young Man (a phrase, incidentally, coined by a dismissive Royal Court press officer).
(18) But Winterbottom, a competent pre-war centre-half for Manchester United, unfairly sneered at by some England international veterans as one who had never played, was, in essence, a bureaucrat rather than a technician, who would admit his other job – yes, he had two!
(19) The decision to have clip-on ties, favoured for police officers, sneered at by those who believe "children should learn to do ties up from an early age", is already paying off, with not a single tie out of place.
(20) If you ever feel tempted to say "status quo" or "cul de sac", for instance, Orwell will sneer at you for "pretentious diction".
Snigger
Definition:
(n.) See Snicker.
Example Sentences:
(1) Forget the soundbites and sniggers, Brendan Rodgers deserved better | Barney Ronay Read more In his final press conference, just over an hour before his contract was terminated, Rodgers spoke of the rebuilding job which was required at Anfield and the time needed and he reiterated that in a statement released by the League Managers’ Association.
(2) Almost 5,000 people commented beneath the article on the paper's website and many more did so on Twitter, with the majority of the comments sniggering at Brick's Zoolander-esque self-descriptions and the seven photos of her that the Mail published, all but begging for cruel comparisons to be made.
(3) Try saying “political debate in Britain” without sniggering.
(4) Also the way Blatter behaved, if you remember on stage, having a snigger and having a laugh at us.
(5) A political debate that revolves around sniggering at women’s body parts and smirks about gay hairdressers?
(6) Instead of sniggering at its misfortunes we should all be very worried indeed about its fate.
(7) There were sniggers, for example, when Trump insisted: “Nobody has more respect for women than I do, nobody.” Asked about the nine women who have come forward to accuse him of the sexually predatory behavior he bragged about in a 2005 video leaked earlier this month , Trump insisted they were all either seeking “10 minutes of fame” or had been somehow orchestrated by Clinton’s campaign.
(8) In leftwing circles it is always felt there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings.” He was right too: in no other progressive European tradition do you find a similar reluctance to fly the flag.
(9) I struggle with the po-faced earnestness of my role: it's hard to "teach from the heart" when I'm sniggering about what they all look like with their bums in the air.
(10) The Chacán-Pi (Making Love) artwork by the Peruvian artist Fernando de la Jara has been outside Tübingen University's institute for microbiology and virology since 2001 and had previously mainly attracted juvenile sniggers rather than adventurous explorers.
(11) At this point, we expect the doorbell to ring and schadenfreude to leap out from behind the marble fountain before barging past us and sniggering at the gold toilet.
(12) The leading American neoconservative William Kristol recently wrote an article in which he says that browsing Orwell in an airport store reminded him once again why Democrats in the US may not be fit to govern: their "sniggering" attitude to American failure in Iraq shows that "they no longer even try to imagine what action and responsibility are like".
(13) [Sniggers for ages] What's that story about a house party at yours when Alex Ferguson turned up?
(14) In the end, however, Carter Page offered little except confusion and the occasional snigger, during a rambling presentation and an evasive question-and-answer session.
(15) We giggle at these cosmopolitan class-traitors and snigger at these soulful hipsters.
(16) There was much sniggering in rehearsals as all these posh public schoolboys tried to be working class.
(17) (Roars of approval from the Tory benches, suppliant sniggers from the sketchwriters.)
(18) Some of the younger contingent sniggered as he spoke.
(19) Straw has recently claimed that the report has played a key part in a "deep-seated cultural change" towards race in Britain: "The pervasive, open racism of the fifties and sixties, the pernicious, sniggering racism of the seventies, eighties and nineties is gone.
(20) I'd like to think a certain famous Argentinian football player who died yesterday is sniggering away up in heaven, laughing at how well his divine retribution has worked in the wake of the host nation foolishly not extending him the courtesy of a minute's silence before kick-off in tonight's match.