Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Frown |
FrownNoun1. A facial expression of dislike or displeasure. Verb1. Wrinkle one's forehead in a sign of disapproval. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "frown" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Synonyms: FrownSynonyms: scowl (n), glower (v), lower (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Dejection | Lower, look downcast, frown, pout; hang down the head; pull a long face, make a long face; laugh on the wrong side of the mouth; grin a ghastly smile; look blue, look like a drowned man; lay to heart, take to heart. |
Depress; discourage, dishearten; dispirit; damp, dull, deject, lower, sink, dash, knock down, unman, prostrate, break one's heart; frown upon; cast a gloom, cast a shade on; sadden; damp one's hopes, dash one's hopes, wither one's hopes; weigh on the mind, lie heavy on the mind, prey on the mind, weigh on the spirits, lie heavy on the spirits, prey on the spirits; damp the spirits, depress the spirits. | |
Disapprobation | Reprehension, remonstrance, expostulation, reproof, reprobation, admonition, increpation, reproach; rebuke, reprimand, castigation, jobation, lecture, curtain lecture, blow up, wigging, dressing, rating, scolding, trimming; correction, set down, rap on the knuckles, coup de bec, rebuff; slap, slap on the face; home thrust, hit; frown, scowl, black look. |
Frown upon, look grave; bend the brows, knit the brows; shake the head at, shrug the shoulders; turn up the nose; (contempt); look askance, look black upon; look with an evil eye; make a wry face, make a wry mouth at; set one's face against. | |
Decry; cry down, run down, frown down; clamor, hiss, hoot, mob, ostracize, blacklist; draw up a round robin, sign a round robin. | |
Discourtesy | Scowl, black looks, frown; short answer, rebuff; hard words, contumely; unparliamentary language, personality. |
Lose one's temper; (resentment); sulk; la; frown, scowl, glower, pout; snap, snarl, growl. | |
Humility | Render humble; humble, humiliate; let down, set down, take down, tread down, frown down; snub, abash, abase, make one sing small, strike dumb; teach one his distance; put down, take down a peg, take down a peg lower; throw into the shade, cast into the shade; stare out of countenance, put out of countenance; put to the blush; confuse, ashame, mortify, disgrace, crush; send away with a flea in one's ear. |
Lamentation | Frown, scowl, make a wry face, gnash one's teeth, wring one's hands, tear one's hair, beat one's breast, roll on the ground, burst with grief. |
Cry; (vociferation); scream, howl; outcry, wail of woe, ululation; frown, scowl. | |
Resentment | Pout, knit the brow, frown, scowl, lower, snarl, growl, gnarl, gnash, snap; redden, color; look black, look black as thunder, look daggers; bite one's thumb; show one's teeth, grind one's teeth; champ the bit, champ at the bit. |
Sullenness | Verb: be sullen; Adjective: sulk; frown, scowl, lower, glower, gloam, pout, have a hangdog look, glout. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Frown |
| English words defined with "frown": Frounce, Frowned, frowningly ♦ herd's grass ♦ Outfrown ♦ Phleum pratense ♦ scowl ♦ timothy, To look black. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "frown": demoscene ♦ Green Gown ♦ languages of choice ♦ sheriff. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | If you tell me to turn my frown upside down, I swear I'm gonna vomit. (Caroline in the City; writing credit: Angela Carneiro) | |
Lyrics | 'Cause when you're worried, your face will frown ("Don't Worry Be Happy"; performing artist: Bobby McFerrin) I can see the frown you wear (Shine; performing artist: Cyndi Lauper) Stand up, round out, boot up and frown (Danger (Been So Long); performing artist: Mystikal) Because I wouldn't ever wanna see you frown (Together Forever; performing artist: Rick Astley) Looks like a frown (Lullaby; performing artist: Shawn Mullins) | |
Clever | I could drown in a frown and swim in a smile. (references; author: unknown) Life is like a mirror: If you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting. (references; author: unknown) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Charles Kingsley | The world goes up and the world goes down, the sunshine follows the rain; and yesterday's sneer and yesterday's frown can never come over again. |
William Shakespeare | A smile cures the wounding of a frown. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | I see it in her cheek, her smile, her vain attempt to frown. |
After Three Days | Carroll, Lewis | The aged brows were bent, Bent to a frown, half thought, and half annoy, That all their stores of subtlest argument Were baffled by a boy. |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | Never was there a blacker or a fiercer frown than Hester now encountered. |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | A mysterious frown is becoming visible in the depths of the sky. |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | A frown of scorn darkened quickly his forehead as he heard again the silly laugh of the questioner. |
King Richard III | Shakespeare, William | [Coming forward] If ancient sorrow be most reverend, Give mine the benefit of seniory, And let my griefs frown on the upper hand. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | SHERIFF, n. In America the chief executive office of a country, whose most characteristic duties, in some of the Western and Southern States, are the catching and hanging of rogues. John Elmer Pettibone Cajee (I write of him with little glee) Was just as bad as he could be. 'Twas frequently remarked: "I swon! The sun has never looked upon So bad a man as Neighbor John." A sinner through and through, he had This added fault: it made him mad To know another man was bad. In such a case he thought it right To rise at any hour of night And quench that wicked person's light. Despite the town's entreaties, he Would hale him to the nearest tree And leave him swinging wide and free. Or sometimes, if the humor came, A luckless wight's reluctant frame Was given to the cheerful flame. While it was turning nice and brown, All unconcerned John met the frown Of that austere and righteous town. "How sad," his neighbors said, "that he So scornful of the law should be -- An anar c, h, i, s, t." (That is the way that they preferred To utter the abhorrent word, So strong the aversion that it stirred.) "Resolved," they said, continuing, "That Badman John must cease this thing Of having his unlawful fling. "Now, by these sacred relics" -- here Each man had out a souvenir Got at a lynching yesteryear -- "By these we swear he shall forsake His ways, nor cause our hearts to ache By sins of rope and torch and stake. "We'll tie his red right hand until He'll have small freedom to fulfil The mandates of his lawless will." So, in convention then and there, They named him Sheriff. The affair Was opened, it is said, with prayer. J. Milton Sloluck |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Frown" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 90.00% of the time. "Frown" is used about 509 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 90% | 459 | 12,771 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 7.45% | 38 | 55,818 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 2.55% | 13 | 97,576 |
| Total | 100.00% | 509 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "frown": frown at ♦ frown at a child ♦ frown at smb. ♦ frown down ♦ frown on ♦ frown up ♦ frown upon ♦ frown upon smb.. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "frown": frown-lines, frown-prevention. | |
Ending with "frown": anti-frown. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
frown | 24 |
frown line | 17 |
b b bridal frown | 12 |
face frown | 6 |
botox frown injection line | 3 |
botox frown line treatment | 3 |
art clip frown | 3 |
dysport frown injection line | 3 |
frown picture | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "frown"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | vrenjt, tregoj pakënaqësi, shfryj (blast, blow, bluster, decompress, grumble, huff, inveigh, leak, let off steam, natter, puff, vituperate, whiffle, wreak), rrudh vetullat (knit, knit one's brows), mbledhje vetullash. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | كفهر (darken, grow dark, scowl), قطب (pole, pout, scowl, swivel), عبوس (fretful, infelicitous, sad, scowl, splenetic, sternum), عبس (darken, gloom, grow dark, lour, scowl, sulk). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | смръщване, чумеря се (lower, sulk), гледам неодобрително, намръщване, намръщвам се, мръщя се (glower, knit one's brows, knit the brows, lower, pucker, scowl, sulk). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 皱眉 (Frowned, frowning, scowl), 愁眉苦臉 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | zamraèený pohled, mraèit se (glower, lour, scowl), kabonit se (darken). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | rypistää kulmiaan (knit one's brows), katsoa kulmainsa alta (scowl). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | froncer les sourcils, froncement de sourcils, sourciller, se renfrogner, rechigner. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | die stirn runzeln (to frown). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | συνοφρυώνομαι (flat, patronal, scowl). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מבט כועס (black looks, glare, scowl), לקמט מצחו, ל"ק"יר פ יו, "ק"רת פ ים. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | szemöldökráncolás, rosszalló tekintet. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | cipiglio (lour, scowl), aggrottare le ciglia, aggrottamento delle ciglia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 顰 (knitted brows). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ひそみ (knitted brows). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 빈축. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | grouigey (scowl, scowling), grouig (scowl), groam (plankton, sad look, sorry look, sullen look, surly look). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | rynke. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ownfray franzir as sobrancelhas (contract, knit one's brows, lower, scowl), olhar severo, olhar carregado, carranca (gargoyle, scowl). (various references) se încrunta (glower, lour, scowl), privi încruntat, a-şi încrunta sprâncenele (lour), încruntãturã. (various references) сдвинутые брови, хмуриться (darkle, look black, scowl), насупиться, нахмуриться. (various references) mùig (cloudiness, gloom, surliness). (various references) mrštiti se (crease, ruck), mrštenje, gledati s neodobravanjem. (various references) ceño (gird, scowl). (various references) rynka pannan. (various references) surat asmak (have the pouts, lour, lower, make face, pout, pull a face, sour, sulk), somurtmak (be in the sulks, go sour, have the pouts, lower, make face, mump, pout, sour, sulk, turn sour), sinir olma, kaşlarını çatmak (frown down, gather one's brows, knit one's brows, knit one's eyebrows), kızma (anger, becoming hot, fury, indignation, inflammation, tiff, vexation), hoşnutsuzluk belirten bakış, hoşgörmemek (discountenance, not to tolerate, reprobate, reprove). (various references) зytmak (knit the browns, wrinkle 1). (various references) хмурий вигляд, насуплюватися (glum), насуплені брови. (various references) vẻ tư lự vẻ khó chịu, vẻ không tán th nh sự khắc nghiệt, sự cau m y, nét cau m y vẻ nghiêm nghị. (various references) turs (bill, snout), gwgu (lower, scowl), gwg (scowl, wrath), cuwch (scowl), cuchio (scowl), cilwg (scowl), cibo (scowl). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | nobe, nube, nubem, nubes, nubibus, nubicula, nubis, nubium, nubs, supercilia, supercilio, supercilium. (various references) |
| Old French | 900-1400 | froignier. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "frown": frowned, frowner, frowners, frowning, frowningly, frowns. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "frown": outfrown. (additional references) | |
Words containing "frown": outfrowned, outfrowning, outfrowns. (additional references) | |
| |
"Frown" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: farow, forown, fown, fraw, frawk, frawn, Frewen, froan, Frogn, froin, fron, frony, froon, frotw, froun, frouwn, Frowd, Frowe, Frownie, frowny, frows, fruin, frw, furrown, Rown. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "frown" (pronounced frou"n) |
| 3 | -r ou" n | Brown, crown, drown. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "f-n-o-r-w" | |
-1 letter: frow, worn. | |
-2 letters: fon, for, fro, nor, now, own, row, won. | |
-3 letters: no, of, on, or, ow, wo. | |
| Words containing the letters "f-n-o-r-w" | |
+1 letter: frowns. | |
+2 letters: fanwort, forwent, forworn, frowned, frowner, reflown. | |
+3 letters: bowfront, fanworts, fencerow, footworn, foreknew, foreknow, forewarn, forewent, forewing, foreworn, forsworn, frowners, frowning, outfrown, wrongful. | |
+4 letters: downdraft, fancywork, farrowing, fencerows, flowering, foreknown, foreknows, foreshown, foresworn, forewarns, forewings, forewoman, forewomen, frontward, frowsting, furrowing, interflow, outfrowns, overflown, reflowing, snowdrift, sunflower, underflow, windproof, wonderful. | |
+5 letters: brownfield, coneflower, cornflower, downdrafts, fancyworks, forewarned, forwarding, freedwoman, freedwomen, frontwards, frowningly, moonflower, outfrowned, snowdrifts, sunflowers, twinflower, underflows, waterfront, windflower, wrongfully. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)46 72 6F 77 6E |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)..-. .-. --- .--. -. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000110 01110010 01101111 01110111 01101110 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)F r o w n |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0046 0072 006F 0077 006E |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4084818980 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Orthography 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
