Word Direct Answers

grimace

grimace is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 2 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.A distortion of the countenance, whether habitual, from affectation, or momentary aad occasional, to express some feeling, as contempt, disapprobation, complacency, etc.; a smirk; a made-up face. Moving his face into such a hideons grimace, that every feature of it appeared under a different distortion. Addison. Note: "Half the French words used affectedly by Melantha in Dryden's "Marriage a-la-Mode," as innovations in our language, are now in common usa: 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." I. Disraeli.
  2. 2.To make grimaces; to distort one's face; to make faces. H. Martineau.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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