Library / English Dictionary

GRIMACE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A contorted facial expression

Example:

she made a grimace at the prospect

Synonyms:

face; grimace

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("grimace" is a kind of...):

facial expression; facial gesture (a gesture executed with the facial muscles)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "grimace"):

moue; pout; wry face (a disdainful grimace)

Derivation:

grimace (contort the face to indicate a certain mental or emotional state)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Contort the face to indicate a certain mental or emotional state

Example:

He grimaced when he saw the amount of homework he had to do

Synonyms:

grimace; make a face; pull a face

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "grimace" is one way to...):

communicate; intercommunicate (transmit thoughts or feelings)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "grimace"):

squinch; squint (cross one's eyes as if in strabismus)

wince (make a face indicating disgust or dislike)

smile (change one's facial expression by spreading the lips, often to signal pleasure)

frown; glower; lour; lower (look angry or sullen, wrinkle one's forehead, as if to signal disapproval)

screw up (twist into a strained configuration)

mop; mow; pout (make a sad face and thrust out one's lower lip)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

grimace (a contorted facial expression)

Credits

 Context examples: 

A type of schizophrenia characterized by frequent incoherence; marked loosening of associations, or grossly disorganized behavior and flat or grossly inappropriate affect that does not meet the criteria for the catatonic type; associated features include extreme social withdrawal, grimacing, mannerisms, mirror gazing, inappropriate giggling, and other odd behavior.

(Disorganized Type Schizophrenia, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Having once caught the bridle, he mastered it directly and sprang to his saddle; grimacing grimly as he made the effort, for it wrenched his sprain.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He made a curious grimace—one of his strange and equivocal demonstrations—threw down his cue and followed me from the room.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Leaning a little back on my bench, I could see the looks and grimaces with which they commented on this manoeuvre: it was a pity Mr. Brocklehurst could not see them too; he would perhaps have felt that, whatever he might do with the outside of the cup and platter, the inside was further beyond his interference than he imagined.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I have seen in his face a far different expression from that which hardens it now while she is so vivaciously accosting him; but then it came of itself: it was not elicited by meretricious arts and calculated manoeuvres; and one had but to accept it—to answer what he asked without pretension, to address him when needful without grimace—and it increased and grew kinder and more genial, and warmed one like a fostering sunbeam.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)