Sneer Meaning
/snɪə̯/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo raise a corner of the upper lip slightly, especially in scorn.
verbTo utter with a grimace or contemptuous expression; to say sneeringly.
Sentence Examples
He curled his lip in a sneer.
There was a laughing devil in his sneer.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The arrogant critic will ____ at the painter's recent work, calling it amateurish.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He couldn't hide a ____ of contempt when he heard the politician's obviously false promises.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English sneren (“to mock, scoff at”), from Old English fnǣran (“to snort”), from Proto-West Germanic *fnāʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *fnesaną (“to pant, gasp”). Akin to North Frisian sneere (“to scorn”), Middle High German snerren (“to chatter; gossip”), Danish snerre (“to growl, snarl”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"So General Oakfield's friends taunted him with having been beaten, and Blackeston's friends sneered at him for not having called the general out. Blackeston, a studious and sensitive man, felt the taunts of his friends as only a student can."
— 1890, Henry Kingsley, Old Margaret: And Other Stories, page 393:
"There was a quick scuffle within the cabin. "Leave me alone, I say, and git!" cried the cook. "Can't I be friendly without you hollerin?" sneered the miner. "You wouldn't have been 'lowed to stay round here if it hadn't been for me.""
— 1913, Land of Sunshine, page 116:
"Near them, on the sand, / Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, / And wrinked lip, and sneer of cold command, / Tell that its sculptor well those passions read"
— 1817 (published 11 January 1818), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Sonnet. Ozymandias.”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume III, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 67:
"He supposed then (with a sneer—M. Paul could sneer supremely, curling his lip, opening his nostrils, contracting his eyelids)—he supposed there was but one form of appeal to which I would listen [...]"
— 1835, Charlotte Brontë, chapter XXX, in Villette:
"And wordy attacks against slavery drew sneers from observers which were not altogether undeserved. The authors were compared to doctors who offered to a patient nothing more than invectives against the disease which consumed him."
— 1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 24:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The arrogant critic will ____ at the painter's recent work, calling it amateurish.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He couldn't hide a ____ of contempt when he heard the politician's obviously false promises.