leer

Judge John Woosley ruled that in “ ‘Ulysses,’ in spite of its unusual frankness, I do not detect anywhere the leer of the sensualist.”

From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2025

The dominant smile is layered in meaning; it’s an expression associated with feelings of superiority and pride but still more friendly than a frown or a leer.

From New York Times ● Feb. 8, 2022

He was similarly positive about the film's villain as Lyutsifer Safin, writing: "Rami Malek, with mottled skin, an all-seeing leer, and the caressing voice of a depraved monk, makes him a hypnotic creep."

From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2021

Each feral snort and supercilious leer, each vaulted syllable of his chewy mitteleuropäisch accent, and each tremor of his predatory gestures plays to the intense concentration of Merhige’s pressing close-ups.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 18, 2019

The Talib in white was tilting his head back and forth with the music, his mouth half-open in a leer.

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

His tenor is white-hot, piercing through the orchestra, threatening to burst into flames as Hades, in his sleazy green leisure suit, leers at Eurydice and stretches the syllables of her name into a sinister design.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 24, 2021

There I sit as he leers a smile reserved for me, lecturing on the fine nuances of human behavior.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 17, 2018

It was not, he wrote: “There were no leers, no smirks. This decorous group could have been standing in line at a church supper.”

From New York Times ● Feb. 28, 2016

Mop-wigged Brent Hinkley romps, leers and honks a great Harpo.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 19, 2012

“You know what my father always says, Todd Hewitt?” he leers up at me.

From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness

The home fans leered at every tackle and roared their men on, and the Edinburgh side responded well with a glut of first-half chances, but were profligate and hesitant in the final third.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2022

Or worse, he leered at it, encouraged it.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 5, 2021

The cop walked up to us, leered at the camera’s LCD screen, and said, “Hey, that looks great!”

From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2019

Lying to her family and leered at by the police, Alice has no option but to fend for herself.

From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2018

Cruel faces leered at him with merciless white eyes.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

But when she played the early solo cut “Money” too, a leering rap banger, she showed she’s always had this in her.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2025

To add insult to injury, she describes John Eastman, another coup plotter, as flashing a "leering grin" while Giuliani manhandled her.

From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2023

He added it was a "privilege and honour" to be now playing the leering, flamboyant Emcee in "this incredible show".

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2023

“The Idol” is gross and leering in the way the set reports suggested, but it’s also inept in a way that Sam Levinson’s “Euphoria” would not suggest.

From New York Times ● Jun. 30, 2023

‘It was an orc-weapon,’ he said, holding it gingerly, and looking with disgust at the carved handle: it had been shaped like a hideous head with squinting eyes and leering mouth.

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien