sneer

Probably akin to Middle High German snerren (“to chatter; gossip”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /snɪə̯/
• (US) IPA^(key): /snɪɚ̯/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ), -ɪɹ

sneer (third-person singular simple present sneers, present participle sneering, simple past and past participle sneered)

1. (intransitive) To raise a corner of the upper lip slightly, especially in scorn
2. (transitive) To utter with a grimace or contemptuous expression; to say sneeringly.

   to sneer fulsome lies at a person

   "Now here's someone who should attend privilege workshops," sneered she.

sneer (plural sneers)

1. A facial expression where one slightly raises one corner of the upper lip, generally indicating scorn.
   • 1835, Charlotte Brontë, chapter XXX, in Villette‎:

     He supposed then (with a sneer—M. Paul could sneer supremely, curling his lip, opening his nostrils, contracting his eyelids)—he supposed there was but one form of appeal to which I would listen [...]

2. A display of contempt; scorn.
   • 1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 24:

     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.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 8, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     It was a casual sneer, obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent, and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face.

   • 2019 July 24, David Austin Walsh, “Flirting With Fascism”, in Jewish Currents‎:

     During [Tucker] Carlson’s keynote, he wedged sneers at his critics for crying “racist!” in between racist remarks about [Ilhan] Omar, jeremiads against the media (“I know there’s a bunch of reporters here, so . . . screw you”), and an attack on Elizabeth Warren and her donors (“She’s a tragedy, because she’s now obsessed with racism, which is why the finance world supports her”)—all to gleeful applause.

• sneer quote

• snarl

• Neers, Resen, ernes, neers, reens

• IPA^(key): /sneːr/

• Audio

  (file)

sneer m (plural sneren or sneers, diminutive sneertje n)

1. snide remark