Other forms: grimacing, grimaces
To grimace is to twist the face in pain or dislike. Everything pulls tight for a second and then lets go.
It is an involuntary expression, which is what separates it from a scowl, since a scowl is aimed at somebody and a grimace simply happens. Pain, bad news and bad tea all produce one. As a noun it names the expression itself, so a grimace of pain is a standard phrase. It takes at when it is directed, and the word came from French, which is why the ending looks the way it does.
1verbgrimaceTo twist the face to show pain or distaste.
“He grimaced as he put weight on the ankle.”
2nounexpressionA twisted expression of pain or dislike.
“She pulled a grimace at the smell.”
A grimace is a mask. French grimace goes back through grime, a mask, to a Frankish word meaning mask or helmet, so pulling a face is putting one on.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰrey-
Proto-Germanic
*grīmô — mask, helmet
Frankish
*grīma
Old French
grimace
Middle French
grimace
French
grimace
English, today
grimace
Built from
From French grimace, from Middle French grimace, from Old French grimace, grimuche, from grime (“mask”) (with the pejorative suffix -ace, from Latin -āceus), from Frankish grīma, grīmō (“mask”), from Proto-Germanic grīmô (“mask, helmet”). Cognate with Old English grīma (“mask, visor, helmet, spectre, apparition”). More at grime.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, Body Language & Gestures
First appears in chapter 15 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word