rictus

Definitions

1. A bird’s gaping mouth.
2. The throat of a calyx.
3. Any open-mouthed expression.

Equivalents

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Suomiirvistys

Examples

“His face⟳ was a rictus of sheer delight.”

“Amid a thick, bristling beard, a nose like⟳ an owl's beak and a mouth whose corners were drawn by a wild-beast-like rictus were just discernible.”

“A rictus of cruel malignity lit up greyly their old bony faces.”

“Sword and shield, bone and steel / Rictus grin / Deaf forever to the battle's din”

“Valves plugs pumps to erase/ rictus from my face⟳.”

“The absolute incarnation of evil, Adolf Hitler, lies at your feet in a pool of his own⟳ blood. His wrinkled, crimson-splattered visage still strains, a jagged-toothed rictus trying to cry⟳ out. Insane even in death. Your lips pinched in bitter victory, you kick⟳ his head off his remains and spit⟳ on his corpse.”

“It squinted at her through the hated light⟳, its brow a rictus of pain and fear.”

“The apprentice watched his Master, pain twisting his features into a rictus.”

CEFR level