Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of simper
Noun
Sandoval, in comparison, sneers and simpers to no success whatsoever; his bad behavior, on and off The Traitors, yields nothing.—Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 20 Feb. 2025 Today’s announcement marks the emergence of a new GE, a high-tech industrial GE — simper, stronger, a more focused company at the core.—Jon Chesto, BostonGlobe.com, 26 June 2018 Al Capone lived as a schoolyard bully, died in a simper with a brain et by syphilis, and lives on through eternity as a cigarillo mascot and gimme film role for dark-haired white actors who want a chance to really chew some scenery.—Paul Dailing, Chicago Reader, 21 Dec. 2017
Verb
Corden’s Yvan, initially a simpering third wheel, becomes the play’s buoyant center as the evening progresses.—Christopher Barnard, Vogue, 17 Sep. 2025 Edelman brings goofy charm to Adam, a gullible and guileless father of four, while Key is consistently funny as the simpering Ken.—Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly, 3 Sep. 2025 Brewer, particularly, redefines the bullying aristocrat, played in the movie as a simpering sadist, but a more robust, complicated man onstage.—Michael Barnes, Austin American Statesman, 8 July 2025 Franco is simpering when he wasn’t distracted, and while Hathaway brings a bit of spirit, most of her lines are only half-funny.—Bill Wyman, Vulture, 28 Feb. 2025 Didn’t want to be a part of that simpering sorority, a keeper of that shameful secret (for so it was considered at the time), that failure.—Alice McDermott, Harper's Magazine, 11 Sep. 2023 And Grant has made something of a second career out of playing charmingly louche rogues of late, smiling and simpering to perfection as the greedy backstabbing Forge.—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 31 Mar. 2023
One untitled work from 1994 shows a strange monster—a guard bent over, gazing back at us between his own legs, his upside-down grin framed by his jackboots.
—
Ben Davis,
The New York Review of Books,
25 Apr. 2026
His toothy grin and what appears to be a small scar on his face bear the unmistakable look of an 8-year-old.
For her part, the first lady nearly managed a smirk.
—
Tony Maglio,
HollywoodReporter,
29 Apr. 2026
In those heady decades of postmodern language-play and seductive irresolution, claims for literature as a force for truth and justice would likely be dismissed, with a smirk, as humanist pieties.