smarmy
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of smarmy
1905–10; smarm, variant of dial. smalm to smear, make slick (< ?) + -y 1
Explanation
Smarmy describes someone who is overly flattering and fake. A smarmy student might tell a teacher, "You're looking even more lovely than usual today," with a big smile. Smarmy describes someone who goes way over the top trying to be suave and charming — fooling no one. A smarmy car salesman will compliment your outfit and your hair and your taste in cars, always with an unpleasant falseness. In the 1930s, smarm was a verb that described smearing the hair with pomade, which makes it look shiny and slick. Back then, smarm also meant smearing with flattery.
Vocabulary lists containing smarmy
Clean Getaway
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
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"Roller Girl" by Victoria Jamieson
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And if a physician advertises on a billboard, you can bet they are no better than the smarmy personal-injury lawyer on the next sign who makes a living chasing ambulances.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 3, 2026
Vance tries to do it with a smarmy smile.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2024
It starred Coleman as “Buffalo Bill” Bittinger, the smarmy, arrogant, dimwitted daytime talk show host who, unhappy at being relegated to the small-time market of Buffalo, New York, takes it out on everyone around him.
From Seattle Times ● May 17, 2024
Bloom — and the script by Jason Hall, Zach Baylin and Alex Tse — positions Danny as savvy but smarmy: an outside-the-box innovator with visions of “untapped demographics” dancing in his head.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2023
The smarmy guy was oilier than a soggy sack of fries.
From "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein
It was a smarmier version of fellow candidate Katie Porter’s infamous interview with CBS last fall in which she, too, tried to police the reporter’s questioning.
From Slate ● May 16, 2026
But now he is old and outdated, while younger, smarmier, more high-tech rivals threaten to leave him choking in bygone glory turned to dust.
From Salon ● Jan. 19, 2025
On her phone she keeps a picture of her mentor, romance novelist Brighton Walsh, dealing a thumb’s down to some of the smarmier words for certain body parts.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 19, 2019
The show, at a club in the Castro called Martuni’s, was a high-spirited antidote to some of the smarmier aspects of the season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 25, 2018
To borrow the show’s oft-repeated example of the industry’s smarmiest idealism, shouldn’t women also have an opportunity to make the world a better place?
From Washington Post ● Dec. 8, 2019
He leans back in his chair, gives me the smarmiest grin a humanoid face can give, and says, “So? Do you still have that dime?”
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 16, 2017
Is Lockhart the smarmiest bloke you’ve ever met, or what?”
From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
