grimace
Noun · VerbOpen English WordNet
Verb (1)grimaced
- contort the face to indicate a certain mental or emotional state“He grimaced when he saw the amount of homework he had to do”Synonyms: make a facepull a faceMore general communicate, intercommunicateMore specific smile, frown, squint, wince, screw up, pout
Noun (1)
- a contorted facial expression“she made a grimace at the prospect”Synonyms: faceType of facial expression, facial gestureKinds pout, moue
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: F., prob. of Teutonic origin; cf. AS. grīma mask, specter, Icel. grīma mask, hood, perh. akin to E. grin.
A distortion of the countenance, whether habitual, from affectation, or momentary and occasional, to express some feeling, as contempt, disapprobation, complacency, etc.; a smirk; a made-up face.
Moving his face into such a hideous grimace, that every feature of it appeared under a different distortion.— Joseph Addison
☞ “Half the French words used affectedly by Melantha in Dryden's ‘Marriage a-la-Mode,” as innovations in our language, are now in common use: chagrin, double-entendre, éclaircissement, embarras, équivoque, foible, grimace, naïvete, ridicule. All these words, which she learns by heart to use occasionally, are now in common use.” Issac Disraeli
To make grimaces; to distort one's face; to make faces. Harriet Martineau
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54