Sneer
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A facial expression where one slightly raises one corner of the upper lip, generally indicating scorn.
"Near them, on the sand, / Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, / And wrinked lip, and sneer of cold command, / Tell that its sculptor well those passions read"
- 2 a facial expression of contempt or scorn; the upper lip curls wordnet
- 3 A display of contempt; scorn.
"And wordy attacks against slavery drew sneers from observers which were not altogether undeserved. The authors were compared to doctors who offered to a patient nothing more than invectives against the disease which consumed him."
- 4 a contemptuous or scornful remark wordnet
- 1 To raise a corner of the upper lip slightly, especially in scorn. intransitive
"So General Oakfield's friends taunted him with having been beaten, and Blackeston's friends sneered at him for not having called the general out. Blackeston, a studious and sensitive man, felt the taunts of his friends as only a student can."
- 2 smile contemptuously wordnet
- 3 To utter with a grimace or contemptuous expression; to say sneeringly. transitive
"to sneer fulsome lies at a person"
- 4 express through a scornful smile wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples""No, no! That isn't the smiling face we are looking for." It was a 'smirk' either that or a 'sneer'."
Etymology
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 North Frisian sneere (“to scorn”), Middle High German snerren (“to chatter; gossip”), Danish snerre (“to growl, snarl”).
Related phrases
More for "sneer"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.