grimace

From French grimace,^[1] from Middle French grimace, from Old French grimace, grimuche, from grime (“mask”) (with the pejorative suffix -ace, from Latin -āceus), from Frankish *grīma, *grīmō (“mask”), from Proto-Germanic *grīmô (“mask, helmet”). Cognate with Old English grīma (“mask, visor, helmet, spectre, apparition”). More at grime.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɪm.əs/, (now rare) /ɡɹɪˈmeɪs/;^[2] enPR: grĭm'-əs, grĭ-mās'

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɪm.əs/, (now very rare) /ɡɹɪˈmeɪs/;^[2][3] enPR: grĭm'-əs, grĭ-mās'
• Rhymes: -eɪs

The pronunciation with stress on the second syllable was the usual one in the 1700s and 1800s, found in poetry^[4] and preferred by dictionaries to the pronunciation with stress on the first syllable,^[5] but it is now very rare.

grimace (plural grimaces)

1. A contorted facial expression, often expressing contempt or pain.

   Her face was twisted in a grimace of disgust.

   • 2005 March, Opera News:

     I trundle off to bed, eyes brimming, face twisted into a grateful glistening grimace, and awaken the next day wondering what all the fuss was about.

2. (obsolete) Affectation, pretence.
   • 1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt, published 2008, page 105:

     Zeluco considered all this as mere affectation and grimace, and was convinced that she would, in due time, unfold the particular mode in which she wished to be indemnified […] .

   • 1790, Helen Maria Williams, Julia, Routledge, published 2016, page 21:

     Charlotte was equally insensible to all his fashionable grimace, and indifferent to his conversation.

• grimacey

grimace (third-person singular simple present grimaces, present participle grimacing, simple past and past participle grimaced)

1. (intransitive) To make grimaces; to distort one's face; to make faces.

• gurn

• grimace on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Category:Grimacing on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

• Gemaric, Megaric

Inherited from Middle French grimace, from Old French grimace, grimuche (“a contorted or wry face, grotesque countenance”), from grime (“mask”) +‎ -ace (pejorative suffix; from Latin -āceus), from Old Frankish *grīma, *grīmo (“mask”), from Proto-Germanic *grīmô (“mask, helmet, cover, night”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrey- (“to strip, paint, smear”). Cognate with Middle Dutch grime (“mask”), Old Saxon grīma (“mask”), Old English grīma (“mask”), Old Norse gríma (“mask, helmet, night”). More at grime.

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁi.mas/

• Audio:

  (file)

grimace f (plural grimaces)

1. grimace

• grimacer
• ce n'est pas à un vieux singe qu'on apprend à faire des grimaces

• → Dutch: grimas
• → English: grimace
• → German: Grimasse f
  • → Russian: гримаса (grimasa)
• → Swedish: grimas

grimace

1. inflection of grimacer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “grimace”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.