moustache-twirling

plural moustache-twirlings · alternative mustache twirling · alternative mustache-twirling · alternative moustache twirling

1. colloquialfigurativelyBehavior associated with villainy.

   And during the final story of the season, The Ultimate Foe, talk about hand-wringing, moustache-twirling, melodramatic villain laughs!

   1987 August 29, Doctor Who Magazines

   3 more examples

   Now, Walter Huston is not of the eyebrow-waving school of cinema actors. He does not go in for moustache-twirling nor nostril-quivering. His is a strong, forceful character. He is not a magazine-cover lad.

   1937 February 28, American Society of Cinematographers, Inc., American Cinematographer (Feb 1937)

   When it comes to accounting, there are four major suitors for the hand of small business. All promise paradise in day-to-day bookkeeping and vow to keep you on the right side ol that moustache-twirling Revenue Canada.

   1997 March 29, Douglas Alder, Computer Player!

   In 1863, Caroline wrote a novel she hoped would support her campaign. In Lost and Saved, Beatrice Brooke elopes with dastardly, moustache-twirling Montagu Treherne.

   2017, Samantha Ellis, Take Courage : Anne Brontë and the Art of Life

2. literalAn instance of twirling one's moustache.