How to Use sneer in a Sentence

sneer

1 of 2 verb
  • Jacob sneers, but doesn’t even wait for his son to answer.
    — Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 15 Aug. 2025
  • Which means Chuck will live to sneer again in flashbacks—fire or no fire.
    — Hillary Busis, VanityFair.com, 20 June 2017
  • But the game has a way of sneering at coronations.
    — Andy McCullough, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2025
  • Amazing that some of the online commenters sneer at the idea.
    — Ellen Byron, WSJ, 15 Jan. 2019
  • The scares are genuine, and the characters aren't meant to be sneered at.
    — Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader, 18 Apr. 2018
  • Ok, go ahead and sneer at my bus through the windshield of your Range Rollover.
    — David H Freedman, Discover Magazine, 30 Apr. 2012
  • Newman’s God is laughing at our prayers, sneering at our cries for help.
    — Time, 6 May 2026
  • Democrats sneered him, went to war against him, assassinated him.
    — Fox News, 5 Aug. 2018
  • The problem is the man sneering on the airplane and the tiny restaurant chair that leaves your thighs black and blue.
    — Katy Waldman, Slate Magazine, 26 June 2017
  • This past week Trump sneered at a reporter who asked about the Argentina bailout.
    — Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 26 Oct. 2025
  • Widely known and loved, the painting is even admired by critics who sneer at the rest of his homey oeuvre.
    — Terry Teachout, WSJ, 26 July 2017
  • The universities have sneered at the people who are feeding them.
    — Richard K. Vedder, The Orlando Sentinel, 1 Feb. 2026
  • Men sneered contemptuously at them, while teenagers used their names as insults.
    — Mikhail Zygar, Vanity Fair, 7 Jan. 2026
  • Why did these corporations sneer at this law that was supposed to rein in their excesses?
    — Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 6 Oct. 2022
  • Izzi is given almost nothing to do except show up, sneer a few threats, and then disappear.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 5 Mar. 2021
  • In the next open tab, judgments about coarseness and its effect on the rest of society are openly sneered at.
    — Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 13 Feb. 2018
  • Kirsh drips with chilly, sneering contempt for the non-mechanical.
    — Noel Murray, Vulture, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Nelemans maintains that his company has developed a use case all its own, one that the big boys would sneer at.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 4 Jan. 2018
  • In an unbuttoned age, people tend to sneer at ceremony, but don’t knock it.
    — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 4 June 2019
  • Within Rome’s elite the basic values of existence are not sneered at.
    — Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 7 Sep. 2023
  • Bell sneers at Hansen, who's dressed like a frog, before throwing him into a coffee table.
    — Evelyn Wang, Allure, 27 Oct. 2017
  • Eat your heart out, Mike Pence, and anyone else predisposed to sneering at his good, gay life.
    — Jerry Brewer, chicagotribune.com, 12 Feb. 2018
  • Smith buries the 3-pointer with 41 seconds left and then sneers at the Maryland fans in the front row.
    — Gregg Doyel, The Indianapolis Star, 3 Jan. 2024
  • Be the person folks used to have so much admiration for, versus someone sneered at when his name is mentioned.
    — Victoria Uwumarogie, Essence, 27 Jan. 2026
  • Norton, meanwhile, is having the time of his life sneering and rolling his eyes at the two younger men who have somehow become his boss.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 25 Sep. 2025
  • There was sneering condescension, of course, but there were also some honest attempts to track the roots of the look.
    — Carolina A. Miranda, Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2023
  • And these same folks sneer at him now, now that he is exposed to be the same black beast that always was in the collective imagination.
    — Angela Helm, The Root, 16 July 2017
  • Then first-year Tulane coach Bob Toledo sneered at the argument.
    — Larry Holder, NOLA.com, 28 Feb. 2018
  • The bug didn't get a starring role in the Herbie the Love Bug movies because of its low, sneering stance.
    — Andrew Moseman, Popular Mechanics, 13 Sep. 2018
  • Fans of analytics sneer at the thought of Rudy Gay being on their basketball team.
    — Jason Jones, sacbee.com, 15 June 2017

sneer

2 of 2 noun
  • She looked at me with a sneer of disgust.
  • The novel elicited sneers from the critics.
  • People of good will shouldn’t pretend that a sneer is a smile.
    — New York Times, 29 Mar. 2022
  • But the sneer withers away; the chuckle turns to dust in the throat.
    — Kevin Baker, The New Republic, 17 May 2018
  • Valarr asks Ser Duncan with a sneer.
    — Noel Murray, Vulture, 23 Feb. 2026
  • Claflin’s got the right kind of handsome face for it, all angles and sneers.
    — Savannah Salazar, Vulture, 20 Mar. 2026
  • But his spiky blonde hair, trademark sneer and seductive voice are all still there.
    — Scott Feinberg, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
  • This is a guy who returns from his tearful apology tour with a sneer.
    — Matt Miller, Esquire, 9 Feb. 2018
  • Bass is the type of leader who gets things done with a smile rather than a sneer or a threatening stare.
    — George Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 17 Nov. 2022
  • Rick, of course—gets to deliver his scumbag line, with a sneer on his scumbag face.
    — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 26 July 2019
  • His face was almost blank; no smile, no sneer, maybe just a hint of satisfaction.
    — Greg Bishop, SI.com, 14 Jan. 2018
  • Yet there is a part of him that sees beyond his immediate feelings and sneers at them.
    — Ben Brantley, New York Times, 10 Feb. 2020
  • My lips were curdled into a sneer the whole time that ending unfolded.
    — Rose Maura Lorre, Vulture, 19 Feb. 2021
  • Looks matter with rock, all the way back to Elvis’s sneer and Chuck Berry’s duck walk.
    — Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 11 July 2019
  • Eric Schneller's mouth is curved into a pronounced sneer, with his nose scrunched up and rage in his eyes.
    — Domenica Bongiovanni, Indianapolis Star, 7 May 2018
  • But four decades ago, a teen movie traded in sneers for sensitivity.
    — Soraya Roberts, The Atlantic, 22 June 2023
  • In the Kool-Aid exchange, Trump holds forth in a mocking tone, with a hint of a sneer.
    — Elahe Izadi, Washington Post, 25 Oct. 2022
  • Recall, too, the media sneers at anyone who questioned the provenance of the warrants.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 23 Jan. 2020
  • Jingoism and patriotic rhetoric earned nothing more from him than a sneer.
    — Laura Miller, Slate Magazine, 27 Feb. 2017
  • The new styling is essentially S550 with less fillip and more sneer.
    — Sam Smith, Car and Driver, 25 Aug. 2023
  • The tendency for players to challenge defenders one-on-one or take high-risk shots used to be called hero ball, and it was said with a sneer.
    — Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2023
  • The band continues to balance sharp smarts with a sonic hint of slacker slouch and just the right calibration on sneer.
    — John Adamian, courant.com, 28 Apr. 2018
  • After all, the band suggests, a sneer is just a sign of wanting something better, more nourishing, than what’s on offer.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 15 Dec. 2022
  • The accident left him with a deep gouge curving from the middle of his chin up through the edge of his lips, twisting his mouth into a slight but permanent sneer.
    — Los Angeles Times, 10 Oct. 2019
  • While some celebrants have greeted these caricatures with cathartic jeers and sneers, others are shocked and outraged.
    — Tim Brinkhof, JSTOR Daily, 1 Apr. 2026
  • There’s always something to be said for filtering the timeless charm of ‘60s girl-group music through the snarl and sneer of classic punk.
    — Ed Masley, azcentral, 15 June 2018
  • Wyatt Russell is now playing Walker with an omnipresent sneer, and his temper seems easy to trigger.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 2 Apr. 2021
  • Clement cuts an impressive figure in his papal robes, but his hooded eyes slide evasively to the side, and the expression on his lips seems close to a sneer.
    — Susan Tallman, The New York Review of Books, 19 Aug. 2021
  • With a leather jacket and an impudent sneer, he was marketed as and often mistaken for a new wave if not punk artist in the late ’70s.
    — Dan Deluca, Philly.com, 3 Oct. 2017
  • Taking on Petty’s croon, frontman Deryck Whibley subdues his usual sneer just enough to sell the song.
    — Chris Payne, Billboard, 3 Oct. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sneer.' 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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