▪ I. grinning, vbl. n.
(ˈgrɪnɪŋ)
[f. grin v.2 + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. grin.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 212 Hwu þe ateliche deouel schal ȝet agesten ham mid his grimme grennunge. c 1450 Bk. Curtasye 29 in Babees Bk., Grennynge & mowynge at þi table eschewe. 1530 Palsgr. 227/2 Grennyng, makyng of an yvell Countynaunce. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb) 116 In the one hir grinning will shew hir deformed. 1607 Topsell. Four-f. Beasts (1658) 371 Turning himself with a scornful grinning, he fighteth with all his force against the Dogs. 1689 Wood Life 30 Nov. (O.H.S.) III. 80 Grinning and rejoycing of phanatiques upon the news of the conspirators being bayl'd. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 173 ¶6 A great Master in the whole Art of Grinning. 1861 Thackeray Four Georges 85 The old poets have sung a hundred jolly ditties about great cudgel-playings, famous grinning through horse-collars..and morris-dances. |
| attrib. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 695 The contraction of the levatores anguli oris, which gives the grinning expression peculiar to tetanus. |
b. Comb., grinning-match, a competition in grinning or grimacing (see also horse-collar).
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 173 ¶5 An Account..of one of these Grinning-Matches. 1801 [see horse-collar]. 1812 Sporting Mag. XL. 18 Mr. Shanks..contrived to assemble his customers with a grinning-match. 1827 Hone Every-day Bk. II. 675 Grinning matches, through a horse-collar. |
▪ II. grinning, ppl. a.
(ˈgrɪnɪŋ)
[f. grin v.2 + -ing2.]
That grins, in senses of the vb.
| 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. xxx. 80 Hornes or grennyng teeth to aferen fooles. 1561 Child Marriages 117 She..callid hym ‘grinninge thief’. 1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. vii. 24 Seeming wondrous glad, That by his grenning laughter mote farre off be rad. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, v. iii. 62, I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath; give me life. 1599 Massinger, etc. Old Law iii. ii, And I have a scurvy grinning laugh a' mine own. 1688 Ld. Delamere Wks. (1694) 75 To pinch your Servants bellies to make entertainments, is a piece of grinning honour. 1742 Gray Distant Prosp. Eton Coll. 74 To bitter Scorn a sacrifice, And grinning Infamy. 1820 Byron Mar. Fal. iii. ii, O'er their shrine Sate grinning Ribaldry and sneering Scorn. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xlvi. (1856) 423 No earthly covering masks the grinning rocks of Pröven. |
Hence ˈgrinningly adv.
| 1755 in Johnson. |