"The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English ... smile / smīl / • v. [ intr. ] To form one's features into a pleased, kind, or amused expression, typically with the corners of the mouth turned up and the front teeth exposed: she was smiling"
I often wonder why on earth the dictionary-writers even bother with definitions like this, it's not as if anyone would not know the word, unless they were foreign, in which case the would not use the Oxford dictionary! Maybe they were told they would only be employed for as long as they were still writing definitions, so they were really scraping the bowl (it should be barrel, but cake mixture tastes so nice!) for words so they could keep their job as long as possible.
I can just imagine a bunch of incredibly bored office workers sitting around making up new words for hours on end-
"I think we could still do with another word for 'nice' "
"What, isn't 50* enough?"
*(And no, I didn't just make this figure up, count for yourself)
Another thing I like about this definition is it makes it sound so technical, like 'The Idiot's Guide to Smiling:'
- Use facial muscles to pull up mouth corners
- Part lips to partially expose front teeth
- Do not be distressed if the area around your eyes starts to crease slightly, this is perfectly normal and is even experienced by professional smilers
- If you are going for the 'traditional sincere' look, it is advisable to find something which pleases or amuses you before attempting to smile
I wonder if we natually smile, or are we brought up to do it by people smiling around us? Is there a culture in the world where smiling is rude, or has an entirely different meaning? There could be a HSBC advert about that!
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