Sneering

Definition: Sneering

Sneering

Adjective

1. Expressive of contempt; "curled his lip in a supercilious smile"; "spoke in a sneering jeering manner"; "makes many a sharp comparison but never a mean or snide one".

Date "sneering" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references)

Domain	Definition
Slang in 1811	SNEERING. Jeering, flickering, laughing in scorn. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Sneering

Synonyms: snide (adj), supercilious (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Detraction	Phrase: "damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer; and without sneering, teach the rest to sneer"; another lie nailed to the counter; "cut men's throats with whisperings"; "foul whisperings are abroad" "soft-buzzing slander"; "virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes".
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Sneering

English words defined with "sneering": cynical ♦ leer ♦ misanthropic, misanthropical ♦ Sneerful, sneeringly, snide, snidely, supercilious, superciliously. (references)

Specialty definitions using "sneering": Damn with Faint Praise, Degenerate ♦ Jacques Bonhomme ♦ Mephistopheles, Mephistophilis, Mephostophilus. (references)

Author	Quotation
W. S. Gilbert	My family pride is something inconceivable. I can't help it. I was born sneering.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Emma	Austen, Jane	They were sneering and negligent.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	DEGENERATE, adj. Less conspicuously admirable than one's ancestors. The contemporaries of Homer were striking examples of degeneracy; it required ten of them to raise a rock or a riot that one of the heroes of the Trojan war could have raised with ease. Homer never tires of sneering at "men who live in these degenerate days," which is perhaps why they suffered him to beg his bread -- a marked instance of returning good for evil, by the way, for if they had forbidden him he would certainly have starved.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Sneering" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 71.67% of the time. "Sneering" is used about 60 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
Lexical Verb (-ing form)	71.67%	43	52,181
Adjective (general or positive)	21.67%	13	97,576
Noun (singular)	5%	3	202,518
Noun (proper)	1.67%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	60	N/A

Expression using "sneering": sneering laugh. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language		Translations for "sneering"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		përqeshje (derision, flout, mock, mockery, mop, scoff, taunt). (various references)

Bulgarian		подигравателен (derisive, jesting, mocking, snide, snippy, teasing). (various references)

Chinese		冷笑 (sneer, Sneered). (various references)

Czech		uštìpaèný (acrimonious, derisive, mocking, sarcastic, scathing, snide), posmívající se, jízlivý (acerbic, blistering, catty, scathing, snide, spiteful, unkind, waspish, wry). (various references)

Finnish		pilkallinen (derisive, ironical, mocking, scornful). (various references)

French		ricaneur (sneerer), gouailleur. (various references)

German		spöttelnd, grinsend (grinning, smirking). (various references)

Greek		εμπαικτικός (mocking). (various references)

Indonesian		cengengesan (jeering, ridiculing, sneering at). (various references)

Italian		sarcastico (biting, derisive, mordacious, sarcastic), beffe, beffardo (derisive, jester, mocking, quizzical, scornful). (various references)

Korean		냉소. (various references)

Manx		jannoo gannidys (banter, burlesque, deride, jeer, sneer), craidagh (jeering, mocking, sarcastic). (various references)

Pig Latin		eeringsnay

Portuguese		sarcástico (acrid, backhanded, ironic, pungent, sarcastic, sardonic, scathing, squint-eyed), zombeteiro (jesting, quizzical), trocista (jollier, scoffer), escarnecedor (derider, giber, scoffer). (various references)

Romanian		sarcastic (acrid, biting, caustic, caustically, cynical, lashing, mordacious, sarcastic, sarcastically, sardonic, satiric, severe, sharp, tart, taunting), batjocoritor (abuser, cynical, derisive, flouting, jeering, jeeringly, merry, mocker, mocking, sarcastic, sardonic, scoffer, scoffing). (various references)

Russian		насмешливый (derisive, derisory, quizzical, scornful, sneerful, tongue in cheek, waggish). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		podsmešljiv, podrugljiv (derisive, derisory, jeering, mocking, quizzical, ridicule, snide, taunting). (various references)

Spanish		lleno de desprecio, burlador y despreciativo. (various references)

Swedish		hånfull (contemptuous, derisive, derisory, jeering, mocking, sardonic, scornful). (various references)

Thai		ซึ่งเยาะเย้ยคนอื่น (sneerful). (various references)

Turkish		küçümseyerek gülen, küçümseyen (condescending, cynical, deprecating, deprecatory, disdainful, disparaging, scornful, snide, snooty, underestimating), alaycı (barbed, cynical, derisive, facetious, ironic, ironical, mocker, mocking, mordacious, scoffer, shavian, snappish, wry). (various references)

Ukrainian		�"хідний, насмішкуватий (derisive, derisory, scoffing). (various references)

Vietnamese		nhạo báng (cheek, derisive, mockingly, sardonic), giễu cợt (banteringly, gibingly, jokingly). (various references)

Welsh		gwawdlyd (jeering, mocking). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Misspellings
	"Sneering" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: seering, Senebron, speering. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "sneering" (pronounced sni"ring)
5	-n i" r i ng	bioengineering, domineering, electioneering, engineering, nearing, pioneering, reengineering.
4	-i" r i ng	adhering, appearing, cheering, clearing, disappearing, earring, fearing, gearing, hearing, interfering, overhearing, premiering, profiteering, racketeering, rearing, rehearing, searing, shearing, smearing, Spearing, steering, veering, volunteering.
3	-r i ng	acquiring, admiring, adoring, airing, alluring, aspiring, assuring, baring, barring, bearing, blaring, boring, caring, chairing, charring, childbearing, comparing, conspiring, curing, daring, declaring, deploring, despairing, during, endearing, enduring, ensuring, expiring, exploring, firing, flaring, flooring, glaring, Goring, haring, herring, hiring, ignoring, impairing, imploring, inspiring, insuring, jarring, jeering, luring, marring, maturing, ministering, mooring, obscuring, outpouring, overbearing, overpowering, pairing, paring, peering, perspiring, poring, pouring, preparing, procuring, quiring, reassuring, rehiring, repairing, restoring, retiring, roaring, scaring, scarring, scoring, securing, sharing, shoring, snaring, snoring, soaring, sparing, sparring, squaring, staring, starring, stevedoring, storing, swearing, tarring, tearing, tiring, touring, uncaring, underscoring, uninspiring, unsparing, Waring, warring, wearing, wiring.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-e-g-i-n-n-r-s"
	-1 letter: engines, ginners, greisen.
	-2 letters: engine, ensign, genies, genres, ginner, greens, inners, nereis, reigns, renigs, renins, resign, seeing, seiner, serein, serine, sering, signee, signer, singer, sinner.
	-3 letters: egers, ernes, genes, genie, genre, girns, green, grees, grins, inner, nenes, nines, reges, reign, reins, renig, renin, resin, rings, rinse, risen, segni, seine, sengi, serge, serin, siege.
	Words containing the letters "e-e-g-i-n-n-r-s"
	+1 letter: beginners, engineers, enserfing, greenings, gunneries, renesting, resending, resenting, screening, secerning.
	+2 letters: argentines, energising, engineries, ensphering, eternising, freshening, greenlings, greenwings, grenadines, insurgence, presenting, regnancies, reopenings, screenings, serenading, tangerines, veneerings.
	+3 letters: angrinesses, bescreening, ensorceling, ergonovines, foreignness, generations, genericness, grandnieces, inbreedings, ingredients, insurgences, interesting, minnesinger, misentering, monseigneur, nitrogenase, pregnancies, ranginesses, reascending, redesigning, reengineers, reenlisting, refastening, reinserting, reinvesting, relicensing, rescreening, reseasoning, supervening, undersigned, undeserving.
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.