simperer

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sim·per

(sĭm′pər)

v. sim·pered, sim·per·ing, sim·pers

v.intr.

To smile in a silly, self-conscious, often coy manner.

v.tr.

To utter or express with a silly, self-conscious, often coy smile: simpered a lame excuse.

A silly, self-conscious, often coy smile.

[Perhaps of Scandinavian origin.]

sim′per·er n.

sim′per·ing·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

simperer - a smiler whose smile is silly and self-conscious and sometimes coy

smiler - a person who smiles

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References in periodicals archive ?

IRONY is clearly lost on I'm A Celebrity simperer Cerys Matthews.

3AM: CATA-GROANIA

And if you consider the people who fell under his command, that is not surprising - all the boys from Dad's Army, the ceaselessly tormented residents and staff of Fawlty Towers; Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, Alexei Sayle, the crew from Not the Nine O'Clock News, the shirkers and twits under the fastsinking sun of British Empire in It Ain't Half Hot, Mum; the preeners, simperers and gossips of Grace Brothers' store in Are You Being Served?