Sardonic \Sar*don"ic\, a. [F. sardonique, L. sardonius, Gr. ?,
?, perhaps fr. ? to grin like a dog, or from a certain plant
of Sardinia, Gr. ?, which was said to screw up the face of
the eater.]
Forced; unnatural; insincere; hence, derisive, mocking,
malignant, or bitterly sarcastic; -- applied only to a laugh,
smile, or some facial semblance of gayety.
[1913 Webster]
Where strained, sardonic smiles are glozing still,
And grief is forced to laugh against her will. --Sir H.
Wotton.
[1913 Webster]
The scornful, ferocious, sardonic grin of a bloody
ruffian. --Burke.
[1913 Webster]
Sardonic grin or Sardonic laugh, an old medical term for
a spasmodic affection of the muscles of the face, giving
it an appearance of laughter.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Sardonic \Sar*don"ic\, a.
Of, pertaining to, or resembling, a kind of linen made at
Colchis.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
sardonic
adj : disdainfully or ironically humorous; scornful and mocking;
"his rebellion is the bitter, sardonic laughter of all
great satirists"- Frank Schoenberner; "a wry pleasure
to be...reminded of all that one is missing"- Irwin
Edman [syn: wry]
WordNet (r) 2.0
18 Moby Thesaurus words for "sardonic":
Rabelaisian, caustic, contemptuous, corrosive, cynical, derisive,
derisory, disdainful, dry, ironic, ironical, jeering, mocking,
sarcastic, satiric, saturnine, sneering, wry
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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characterized by scornful derision or bitter irony; mocking; cynical; said to derive from the Latin word for a Sardinian plant which, when eaten ...
http://classics.wlu.edu/literaryterms.html
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disdainfully or ironically humorous; scornful and mocking; "his rebellion is the bitter, sardonic laughter of all great satirists"- Frank Schoenberner; "a wry pleasure to be...reminded of all that one is missing"- Irwin Edman
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
sardonic suite, sardonic wrath, Search the Web, wry
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