Forms: 1 smearcian, 1–2 smercian, 6–7 smerk(e; 3– smirk, 5 smyrke, 6 Sc. smyrk, 7 smirke, 8–9 dial. smurk, etc. [OE. smearcian, smercian, app. not represented in any of the cognate languages.]
1. intr. To smile; in later use, to smile in an affected, self-satisfied or silly manner; to simper.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 4. Ða ongon he smearcian & cwæð to me. Ibid., xxxiv. § 10. Ða smearcode he & cwæð.
971. Blickling Hom., 189. Þa Neron þæt ʓehyrde, þa smercode he.
a. 1023. Wulfstan, Hom. (1883), 140. Þonne þu smercodest and hloʓe, þonne weop ic biterlice.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 356. Þeos meiden lette lutel of al þet he seide, & smirkinde smeðeliche ȝef him þullich onswere.
a. 1500. in Ratis Raving, etc. (1870), 108. [Let her] kep her [self] in kirk To kek abak, to lauch, or smyrke.
1577–82. Breton, Toyes Idle Head, Wks. (Grosart), I. 37/1. But who so smirking smiles with merry cheare, That countenance shewes that some good newes is neare.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 500. A sober Matron weeping, and a light Courtesan smirking.
1604. Friar Bacon’s Proph., 131, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 273. He would smirke and she would smile.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Smirk, to smile, or look pleasant.
a. 1743. J. Relph, Misc. Poems, Gloss. 166. To smurk, to smile.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, IV. 327. The young perfumer came, smirking and scraping, into the room.
1833. Tennyson, The Goose, 20. The parson smirk’d and nodded.
1862. Sala, Seven Sons, I. iii. 51. The little man comes smirking and bowing up to her.
1883. Stevenson, Silverado Sq., 63. He had a projecting under-lip, with which he continually smiled, or rather smirked.
b. Const. at, on, or upon a person, etc.
a. 1500. in Ratis Raving, etc. (1870), 86. With mekil langag but mesure, Smyrkand one euery creature.
1523. Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 762. He wyll set men a feightynge and syt hymselfe styll, And smerke, lyke a smythy kur, at sperkes of steile.
1567. Drant, Horace, Ep., A iij. The cheares of men as theie will smerke on those that vse to smyle.
1706. Reflex. upon Ridicule, 207. An Old Dotard smirking upon a young and handsome Woman.
1839. Dickens, Nickleby, iii. Gentlemen smirking at each other out of blue and brown skies.
1880. W. H. Dixon, Windsor, III. xiv. 130. Dick smirked at Alice.
transf. 1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., I. 121. Any vices or follies … rather than those that … smirk on us in silks and satins at our churches.
† 2. trans. To trim up, to make neat or spruce.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, Ep. Ded. cij b. Will it please you to bee cosmologized and smirkt?
3. To utter with a smirk. rare–1.
1879. Browning, Martin Relph, 129. Till the first knave smirked ‘You brag Yourself a friend of the king’s?’
Hence Smirker, one who smirks.
1756. Cowper, Connoisseur, No. 138, ¶ 4. The Smirkers and Smilers, who so prettily set off their faces … by a je-ne-sçai-quoi between a grin and a dimple.
