grin
pronunciation
How to pronounce grin in British English:
UK [ɡrɪn]
How to pronounce grin in American English:
US [ɡrɪn]
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- Noun:
- a facial expression characterized by turning up the corners of the mouth; usually shows pleasure or amusement
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- Verb:
- to draw back the lips and reveal the teeth, in a smile, grimace, or snarl
Word Origin
- grin
- grin: [OE] Modern English grin and groan are scarcely semantic neighbours, but a possible common ancestor may provide the link: prehistoric Indo-European *ghrei-, which seems to have meant something like ‘be open’. It has been suggested as the source of a range of verbs which started off denoting simply ‘open the mouth’, but have since differentiated along the lines ‘make noise’ and ‘grimace’. Grin has taken the latter course, but close relatives, such as Old High German grennan ‘mutter’ and Old Norse grenja ‘howl’, show that the parting of the semantic ways was not so distant in time.Old English grennian actually meant ‘draw back the lips and bare the teeth in pain or anger’. Traces of this survive in such distinctly unfunny expressions as ‘grinning skull’, but the modern sense ‘draw back the lips in amusement’ did not begin to emerge until the 15th century. Groan [OE], on the other hand, is firmly in the ‘make noise’ camp.=> groan
- grin (n.)
- 1630s, from grin (v.).
- grin (v.)
- Old English grennian "show the teeth" (in pain or anger), common Germanic (cognates: Old Norse grenja "to howl," grina "to grin;" Dutch grienen "to whine;" German greinen "to cry"), from PIE root *ghrei- "be open." Sense of "bare the teeth in a broad smile" is late 15c., perhaps via the notion of "forced or unnatural smile." Related: Grinned; grinning.
Example
- 1. And on his face is plastered a grin of purest exhilaration .
- 2. ' I didn 't know that cats could grin , 'said alice .
- 3. He had a large grin on his face .
- 4. He dipped his shoulders , produced a tight grin that tapered to a grimace at both corners of his mouth .
- 5. Is green tea really as great as my wife says it is , and should I try to grin and bear it and gulp it down ?