smarmy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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He is comfortably smarmy in the role of an overconfident undergrad at Vassar College who reassures everyone that he is certain to win an important fellowship for the summer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
And if a physician advertises on a billboard, you can bet they are no better than the smarmy personal-injury lawyer on the next sign who makes a living chasing ambulances.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 3, 2026
“Whatever I do, I do for America,” he intones with smarmy conviction.
From Salon ● Nov. 10, 2024
It starred Coleman as “Buffalo Bill” Bittinger, the smarmy, arrogant, dimwitted daytime talk show host who, unhappy at being relegated to the small-time market of Buffalo, New York, takes it out on everyone around him.
From Seattle Times ● May 17, 2024
“Put a word in his ear, in that smarmy way of yours. Suggest delicately that a reward might do wonders.”
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
It was a smarmier version of fellow candidate Katie Porter’s infamous interview with CBS last fall in which she, too, tried to police the reporter’s questioning.
From Slate ● May 16, 2026
But now he is old and outdated, while younger, smarmier, more high-tech rivals threaten to leave him choking in bygone glory turned to dust.
From Salon ● Jan. 19, 2025
On her phone she keeps a picture of her mentor, romance novelist Brighton Walsh, dealing a thumb’s down to some of the smarmier words for certain body parts.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 19, 2019
The show, at a club in the Castro called Martuni’s, was a high-spirited antidote to some of the smarmier aspects of the season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 25, 2018
To borrow the show’s oft-repeated example of the industry’s smarmiest idealism, shouldn’t women also have an opportunity to make the world a better place?
From Washington Post ● Dec. 8, 2019
He leans back in his chair, gives me the smarmiest grin a humanoid face can give, and says, “So? Do you still have that dime?”
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 16, 2017
Is Lockhart the smarmiest bloke you’ve ever met, or what?”
From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling
Vocabulary lists containing smarmy
Clean Getaway
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
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"Roller Girl" by Victoria Jamieson
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