Sneer

File:Hieronymus Bosch 056.jpg — illustrating the facial expression known as a "sneer"]]

• In Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë used the sneer—as perceived by the novel's narrator, the housekeeper Ellen Dean ("Nelly")—to epitomize the personality of Heathcliff, the lead character.'My amiable lady!' he interrupted, with an almost diabolical sneer on his face. 'Where is she - my amiable lady?' (Chapter 2)|'Have you been listening at the door, Edgar?' asked the mistress, in a tone particularly calculated to provoke her husband, implying both carelessness and contempt of his irritation. Heathcliff, who had raised his eyes at the former speech, gave a sneering laugh at the latter (Chapter 11)|'Yes, she's dead!' I answered, checking my sobs and drying my cheeks. 'Gone to heaven, I hope; where we may, every one, join her, if we take due warning and leave our evil ways to follow good!'

'Did she take due warning, then?' asked Heathcliff, attempting a sneer. 'Did she die like a saint? (Chapter 16)|'Heathcliff did not glance my way, and I gazed up, and contemplated his features almost as confidently as if they had been turned to stone. His forehead, that I once thought so manly, and that I now think so diabolical, was shaded with a heavy cloud; his basilisk eyes were nearly quenched by sleeplessness, and weeping, perhaps, for the lashes were wet then: his lips devoid of their ferocious sneer, and sealed in an expression of unspeakable sadness. Had it been another, I would have covered my face in the presence of such grief. In his case, I was gratified; and, ignoble as it seems to insult a fallen enemy, I couldn't miss this chance of sticking in a dart: his weakness was the only time when I could taste the delight of paying wrong for wrong.' (Chapter 17)| I could doubt no more: he was dead and stark!

I hasped the window; I combed his black long hair from his forehead; I tried to close his eyes: to extinguish, if possible, that frightful, life-like gaze of exultation before any one else beheld it. They would not shut: they seemed to sneer at my attempts; and his parted lips and sharp white teeth sneered too! (Chapter 34)

• The horror genre actor Vincent Price delivered his characters' lines with a trademark sneer.[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8MtgnIj5VQC&q=sneer Smirk, sneer, and scream: great acting in horror cinema]. Mark Clark. McFarland, 2004. {{ISBN|0-7864-1932-6}}. p.96[https://books.google.com/books?id=5O92XrQMbCYC&dq=Sneer+Vincent+Price&pg=PA3 Two for the Road: Our Love Affair with American Food]. Michael Stern. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007. {{ISBN|0-618-87268-X}}. pp.2-3
• Punk rock musician Billy Idol is also known for a trademark sneer.
• In the Harry Potter stories, Draco Malfoy and his father are notorious for their sinister sneers, which represent these characters' sense of entitlement over and contempt for those judged lacking in monetary, power, or family status.[https://books.google.com/books?id=-jtl-ZDxEFkC&q=sneers&pg=PA51 Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter]. Elizabeth E. Heilman. Taylor & Francis, 2008. {{ISBN|0-415-96484-9}}. p.51[https://books.google.com/books?id=-__ICQemqaEC&dq=Draco+malfoy+sneer&pg=PA184 Reading Harry Potter: critical essays]. Giselle Liza Anatol. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003. {{ISBN|0-313-32067-5}}. p.184
• More than one commentator has depicted pop culture judicial panels such as those seen on American Idol and Britain's Got Talent as regularly sneering upon their hapless contestants.[https://books.google.com/books?id=WaBicMvGidsC&q=sneering&pg=PT275 YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day]. Greg Jarboe. John Wiley and Sons, 2009. {{ISBN|0-470-45969-7}}. p.245[https://books.google.com/books?id=qMJwVgETRf8C&dq=simon+cowell+sneer&pg=PA78 Edges: assessment for learning in English]. Imelda Pilgrim, Lindsay McNab, Marian Slee, Cindy Torn. Heinemann, 2005. {{ISBN|0-435-22730-0}}. p.78[https://books.google.com/books?id=5xAEAAAAMBAJ&q=sneering&pg=RA1-PA43 Billboard]. May 4, 2002. p.43
• The cartoon character Cyril Sneer from the Canadian series The Raccoons has a sneer as his namesake.[https://books.google.com/books?id=us9kAAAAMAAJ&q=Cyril+Sneer Animated TV specials: the complete directory to the first twenty-five years]. Scarecrow Press, 1989. {{ISBN|0-8108-2198-2}}

[https://books.google.com/books?id=7iQEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Cyril+Sneer%22&pg=RA1-PA49 Billboard]. Jul 26, 1986. p.K-19

• Former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney's political opponents have at times perceived him as looking upon them with a sneer.[https://books.google.com/books?id=sHoEltj2QHsC&dq=sneer+dick+cheney&pg=PA62 Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin]. Larry Beinhart. Nation Books, 2006. {{ISBN|1-56025-886-1}}. p.62[https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZWKZEq6t6oC&dq=%22Dick+Cheney%22+sneer&pg=PA2 Capitalists and conquerors: a critical pedagogy against empire]. Peter McLaren. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. {{ISBN|0-7425-4193-2}}. p.2

• Sarcasm
• Smirk
• Snarl

{{Portal|Psychology}}

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{{Commons cat|Sneers}}

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Category:Facial expressions