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# smirk

«smirk» in Mova's school dictionary: **to smile in a smug, silly or unkind way, often because…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (smirk, smirks, smirked, smirking); noun (a smirk, smirks)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To smirk is to smile in a smug, silly or unkind way, often because you think you are cleverer than someone or are pleased about their bad luck. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smirk/#m1)

2) A smirk is a smile like that. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smirk/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In stories a smirk tells the reader that a character is pleased with themselves, sneaky or mean, not truly friendly. In everyday life adults may say «Wipe that smirk off your face!» when a child is being cheeky. Phrases: a smug smirk, wipe the smirk off someone's face.

### examples

- The bully smirked when I dropped my books. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smirk/#x1)
- «I told you so,» she said with a smirk. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smirk/#x2)
- Wipe that smirk off your face and say sorry. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smirk/#x3)
- The villain smirked as he locked the door. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smirk/#x4)
- He tried not to smirk when the teacher got the answer wrong. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smirk/#x5)
- There was a little smirk on the cat's face after it stole the fish. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smirk/#x6)
- Her smirk showed she knew the secret. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smirk/#x7)
- They smirked at each other and rubbed their hands. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smirk/#x8)

### note

A smirk is not the same as a smile or a grin: it is usually unkind or smug. Past form smirked. Countable noun: a smirk, two smirks.

### In the corpora

- [Jake says «Sorry, innit» to Sam with a big smirk while his mates snigger.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/477-saying-sorry-and-the-sorry-that-is-not-accepted/9/)
- [A sorry said with a smirk or a sarcastic voice is just another dig, and you are allowed to say so.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/477-saying-sorry-and-the-sorry-that-is-not-accepted/29/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «smirk» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smirk/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.