Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A gaping grimace.
- noun The expanse of an open mouth or a bird's beak.
- noun The corner of the mouth or the fleshy area where the upper and lower mandibles of a bird meet.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In ornithology, the gape of the bill; the cleft between the upper and the lower mandible when the mouth is open.
- noun In botany, the throat, as of a calyx, corolla, etc.; the opening between the lips of a ringent or personate flower.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The gape of the mouth, as of birds; -- often resricted to the corners of the mouth.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A bird's
gaping mouth - noun Any open-mouthed expression
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a gaping grimace
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It was best described as a rictus – a mug somewhere between a frozen formal grin and someone trying to hold back on saying, “oh shit oh dear …”.
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I have not yet seen the photographs but I see the word 'rictus' coming to my mind.
Archive 2006-11-01 Glyn Davies 2006
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The parents went on and on about how Daniel is usually so shy, but he really loved me, and my peaceful meal turned into me trying to appease some young chitterling at the next table with some kind of rictus plastered across my weary face.
saru-san Diary Entry saru-san 2004
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Her eyes were clenched shut, a rictus of pain marring her features.
Arcane Circle Linda Robertson 2011
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I appear tortured and gripped with terror, my features drawn in a rictus of anxiety.
Get Laid or Die Trying Jeff Allen 2011
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Her face hardened, and her mouth pulled into a gaping rictus.
Crimson Wind Diana Pharaoh Francis 2011
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Her mouth curled into a rictus of a grin, her front teeth broken and ragged.
Brush of Darkness Allison Pang 2011
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Her mouth curled into a rictus of a grin, her front teeth broken and ragged.
Brush of Darkness Allison Pang 2011
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His scaled lips pulled back in a mocking rictus of a grin.
Brush of Darkness Allison Pang 2011
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They stare silently back at me, their faces frozen in a permanent rictus of hate.
Bright Western knick-knack challenge!!! « Third Point of Singularity 2009
bookhling commented on the word rictus
*I said smile, not horrible rictus!*
from the Questionable Content
September 13, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word rictus
(n): the gape of the mouth, as of birds; often specifically the corners of the mouth.
January 1, 2009
bilby commented on the word rictus
"A rictus of cruel malignity lit up greyly their old bony faces."
- James Joyce, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'.
August 26, 2009