smile-smirk

present singular third person smile-smirks · participle present smile-smirking · participle past smile-smirked · past smile-smirked

1. To smile while smirking.

   She smilesmirked supercilious (wept! aren’t men?), but, lightward gliding, mild she smiled on Boylan.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 11: Sirens]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 256

   2 more examples

   Having inarticulately “rung the bell,” Douce “smilesmirks,” but nothing comes from her lips until the show is over and she teases Blazes Boylan (flirting with him, not Lenehan) that he is “the essence of vulgarity?' Never mind that her surname is French for “sweet,” she goes sour when Boylan leaves the pub immediately thereafter, for an assignation with Bloom's wife Molly.

   2013, Jeffrey Miller, The Structures of Law and Literature

   He clanged open the register, still smile-smirking—Holy moly, it was really happening, what an adventure, wait'll he told the guys!

   2014, John Nichols, American Blood

plural smile-smirks

1. An instance of smile-smirking; a combined smile and smirk.

   He wiped his own face as an indicator, that same smile-smirk painted on his stupid face.

   2014, Zoe Foster Blake, The Wrong Girl

   3 more examples

   […] and he'd quickly pull out and jettison a storm, turbospewing her back and hair and sheets and face and ears and sly, conniving little smile-smirk.

   2012, Jim Marquez, A Moveable Beast

   Not because it made his scar disappear, but because it eased it for a few moments. His cocky smile-smirk was a close second favorite.

   2014, Nicole Williams, The Crash Trilogy

   I'm so not gonna tell him I was giggling because he is in my laps, but honestly, I think he knows. His lips do that smile-smirk thing again and he sits up.

   2014, Lisanne Koster, Happily Ever After, Yes Please