What is a smarmy person?
1 : revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, or false earnestness a tone of smarmy self-satisfaction — New Yorker.
What does smarmy mean in British slang?
adjective. If you describe someone as smarmy, you dislike them because they are unpleasantly polite and flattering, usually because they want you to like them or to do something for them. [British, informal, disapproval]
What does Schwarmy mean?
Adjective. swarmy (comparative swarmier, superlative swarmiest) Of bees: inclined to swarm. quotations ▼ Swarming with people or activity; teeming.
Where does smarmy come from?
“Smarm” appears to be rooted in the old English dialect word “smalm,” meaning “to smear the hair with pomade” (pomade being hair oil, what Vitalis TV commercials used to call “greasy kid stuff”).
What is know it all attitude?
a person who acts as though he or she knows everything and who dismisses the opinions, comments, or suggestions of others.
What does the dictionary definition of smarmy mean?
The Oxford English Dictionary‘s principal definition for “smarmy” is “ingratiating, obsequious; smug, unctuous,” and the first citation is from L. Brock, “Deductions of Col. Gore, ” published in 1924: Don’t you be taken in by that smarmy swine.
How is the word’smarmy’related to oiliness?
“Smarmy” is related to oiliness. It’s rare to know the exact origin or a word, but “smarmy” was a winner in an 1899 contest of original familect words in a London journal. “Smarmy” is a useful word, as anyone who has had to listen to an oleaginous colleague drone on in a business meeting can attest.
Where does the word smarm come from in English?
The verb smarm appeared in English in the mid-19th century. Etymologists don’t know where it came from, but they do know that it meant “to smear,” “to gush,” or sometimes “to make smooth or oily.”. A few decades later, the use of smarm was extended to sometimes mean “to use flattery.”. The adjective smarmy appeared in…
Who is the actor who plays the smarmy husband?
— David Sims, The Atlantic, 9 Jan. 2020 Don Johnson plays her smarmy husband, Richard, while Michael Shannon plays youngest son Walt Thrombey, who has been running his father’s publishing empire. — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 24 Nov. 2019 Watching a smarmy seducer gets his comeuppance is good unclean fun.