Other forms: sneering, sneers, sneered
To sneer is to smile in a way that shows contempt. The lip curls, and there is nothing warm in it.
It takes at, and sneering at somebody is dismissing them with a face rather than words. As a noun it is the expression itself. The word extends to speech and writing, so a sneering tone and a sneering review both drip with the same disdain. It sits alongside smirk and scowl in English's rich vocabulary for unpleasant expressions, and it is the most contemptuous of the three.
1verbsneerTo smile or speak with obvious contempt.
“He sneered at the very idea.”
2nouncontemptuousA contemptuous expression.
“There was a permanent sneer on his face.”
Proto-Germanic
*fnesaną — to pant, gasp
Proto-West Germanic
*fnāʀijan
Old English
fnǣran — to snort
Middle English
sneren — to mock, scoff at
English, today
sneer
From Middle English sneren (“to mock, scoff at”), from Old English fnǣran (“to snort”), from Proto-West Germanic fnāʀijan, from Proto-Germanic fnesaną (“to pant, gasp”). Akin to frr sneere (“to scorn”), Middle High German snerren (“to chatter; gossip”), Danish snerre (“to growl, snarl”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire
First appears in chapter 1 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word