grin
1- to smile broadly, especially as an indication of pleasure, amusement, or the like.
- to draw back the lips so as to show the teeth, as a snarling dog or a person in pain.
- to show or be exposed through an opening, crevice, etc.
- to express or produce by grinning: The little boy grinned his approval of the gift.
- a broad smile.
- the act of producing a broad smile.
- the act of withdrawing the lips and showing the teeth, as in anger or pain.
Origin of grin
1Synonyms for grin
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comgrin
2- Chiefly Scot. a snare like a running noose.
- to catch in a nooselike snare.
Origin of grin
2Examples from the Web for grin
Contemporary Examples of grin
Then, with a grin, “And we all know how degenerate those people are.”
‘Mozart in the Jungle’: Inside Amazon’s Brave New World of Sex, Drugs, and Classical MusicKevin Fallon
December 23, 2014
Viewers leave with a grin, but are no wiser about the frightening symptoms of ALS.
“It will only be a moderate size disaster,” Kleiman says with a grin.
Besides,” she adds with the grin of a confident fashionista, “people are going to want to wear the clothes that I wear anyway.
The young infantryman in me beamed and I started to grin, thinking about the glory.
Historical Examples of grin
Then suddenly that face cracked, broadened, spread to a grin.
Howard Pyle's Book of PiratesHoward Pyle
With a grin and a swagger of pure bravado Mulready turned and obeyed.
The Black BagLouis Joseph Vance
And the devil did grin, for his darling sin Is pride that apes humility.
ReflectionsFrancois Duc De La Rochefoucauld
Or is he recognized as colored only in respect to his peculiar wearin' of the grin?
I saw them grin at the little man and spit tobacco juice his way.
The HarborErnest Poole
grin
- to smile with the lips drawn back revealing the teeth or express (something) by such a smileto grin a welcome
- (intr) to draw back the lips revealing the teeth, as in a snarl or grimace
- grin and bear it informal to suffer trouble or hardship without complaint
- a broad smile
- a snarl or grimace
Word Origin for grin
Word Origin and History for grin
Old English grennian "show the teeth" (in pain or anger), common Germanic (cf. Old Norse grenja "to howl," grina "to grin;" Dutch grienen "to whine;" German greinen "to cry"), from PIE root *ghrei- "be open." Sense of "bare the teeth in a broad smile" is late 15c., perhaps via the notion of "forced or unnatural smile." Related: Grinned; grinning.
1630s, from grin (v.).