How to Use smarmy in a Sentence

smarmy

adjective
  • The smarmy young taxi driver who took people to and from the party?
    — Lloyd Sachs, chicagotribune.com, 13 July 2017
  • That smarmy joke about dumb blondes that a colleague tells at lunch demeans all women.
    — Michelle Ruiz, Vogue, 17 Apr. 2018
  • And not just the usual obvious targets, like the smarmy hypocrites at court.
    — Ben Brantley, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2018
  • For instance, the media calls me smarmy, sarcastic, all kinds of awful things.
    — Fox News, 19 Sep. 2018
  • Bob is the Dude-like stoner who detests the world's smarmy millionaires.
    — Bryan Alexander, USA Today, 23 Sep. 2025
  • The standard plot — young boy and heroic, smarmy dog confront bad guys — was perfect fodder for children.
    — Finn Cohen, New York Times, 27 Jan. 2017
  • Watching a smarmy seducer gets his comeuppance is good unclean fun.
    — Christopher Arnott, courant.com, 12 Nov. 2019
  • Speaking of being smarmy, some would insist that no one will fall for bad mental health advice that comes from AI.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 25 Aug. 2025
  • Their responses to widespread, serious criticism can be grandiose and smarmy.
    — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Wired, 15 Jan. 2020
  • This show will ride or die on your tolerance for Michael Ian Black looking at the camera and being smarmy.
    — Eric Vilas-Boas, Vulture, 18 Mar. 2026
  • Yet Ms Clifford is no smarmy British comic or slippery senator.
    — The Economist, 22 Mar. 2018
  • Tim Robbins’s turn as a smarmy film executive who kills a screenwriter skewers the movie industry with a wink and a nod.
    — Erik Morse, Vogue, 23 Oct. 2025
  • Converting your nonprofit to a moneymaker will do that; so will your leader’s series of smarmy pronouncements about the future.
    — Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 25 June 2026
  • Johnson has always been a bit slick in the promotion of his brand; there’s something smarmy and politician-ish about his attempts to appeal to as broad an audience as possible.
    — Richard Lawson, Rolling Stone, 1 Oct. 2025
  • In his grand delusions and smarmy self-importance, Connor is the least affected by the toxic struggle consuming the rest of the family.
    — Andrew R. Chow, Time, 8 Aug. 2019
  • Johnson’s smarmy answer on Ogles showed that today’s Republican leadership has neither the courage nor the desire to push back in the same way.
    — David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 11 Mar. 2026
  • Whitney, one of the most smarmy, conniving characters written into the entirety of the show, was one of Micay’s favorites to bring to life through the soundtrack.
    — Kiana Mickles, Pitchfork, 2 Mar. 2026
  • Robert Mitchum follows as the smarmy billionaire bachelor who treats the isle of Manhattan as his business headquarters.
    — Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 19 Apr. 2019
  • They'll be taught to reveal, not conceal, their honest feelings, to distrust smarmy men, to like a guy with a reindeer for a friend, to learn that leadership requires thoughtful introspection.
    — Chris Jones, chicagotribune.com, 23 Mar. 2018
  • Talking about having an organizational identity often seems smarmy; something a college football coach might claim to have built by recruiting our type of guys.
    — Stephen J. Nesbitt, New York Times, 12 Oct. 2025
  • His presence here can be chalked up to the fact that Underwater was filmed almost three years ago, but that doesn’t make his penchant for agitated, smarmy line-readings any less exhausting.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 9 Jan. 2020
  • Whether or not the characterization was ever fair, the Bluetooth headset was the accoutrement of smarmy business men talking loud on the phone in inappropriate places.
    — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 12 June 2018
  • But the Mind Flayer could just as easily be lurking within the smarmy new mayor or the creepy police officer who seems to be tracking Hopper—or maybe even Hopper himself.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 21 June 2019
  • The disarmingly handsome comic adopted the delivery of a smarmy newsman and deadpanned a joke about the hatching of a baby sandpiper, a triumph for the zoo where it was born, until the bird was stomped to death by a baby hippo born a day earlier.
    — Scottie Andrew, CNN Money, 1 Jan. 2026
  • Brooks takes a gamble by letting the Monster be funny – seeing Peter Boyle mug the camera with a smarmy grin is as compelling as any serious approach to the Monster’s humanity.
    — Rory Doherty, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2025
  • Both are veterans of the talk-show circuit, but Short has clearly mastered the form, appearing on David Letterman’s show more than 30 times, always full of old-school insults, showbiz stories and a put-on, smarmy charm.
    — Nicole Brodeur, The Seattle Times, 1 July 2018
  • Carrying the filmmaker's political banner is Matthew Modine, playing a smart and smarmy countercultural Marine recruit.
    — Thr Staff, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 June 2017
  • Their sole quant, that deliciously smarmy guy (Will Rolan), has mastered an algorithm that’s the equivalent to Bobby Axelrod’s mind, only without all the irrationalities and strutting.
    — refinery29.com, 4 June 2018
  • Meanwhile, Jennifer, her brother (a smarmy Rupert Friend) and her father (Marshall Bell) hobnob with the Bay Area elite during one of their ritzy arts and dance foundation’s announcements.
    — Randy Myers, Mercury News, 26 Feb. 2026
  • The men in the cast – Ben Jacoby and Brent Thiessen – are suitably smarmy in their stick-thin roles, with the supporting adult actresses – Sarah Bockel and Lael Van Keuren – playing the mothers with caricature zeal.
    — Greg Evans, Deadline, 22 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'smarmy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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