adjective

• Grimly mocking or cynical.

  ‘Starkey attempted a sardonic smile’

  More example sentences

  • ‘You can bet, though, that the Frenchman has allowed himself a sardonic smile.’
  • ‘I mean, he had a lot of sardonic, sarcastic things like that to say and to make fun of himself, and so forth.’
  • ‘The play has moments of sharp humour, mostly emanating from the sardonic Jean.’
  • ‘Happy to relate, acrimony is often enhanced by sardonic humour.’
  • ‘He was also the observant one, casting a sardonic eye on the absurdities of pop stardom, the Swinging Sixties and the aftermath of that crazy decade.’
  • ‘In my more sardonic moments I add that the problem with England cricket is not the absence of a level playing field but the lack of good players.’
  • ‘Fan though I am of his great performances of yore, his perpetual air of sardonic superiority is now getting very grating.’
  • ‘The sardonic humour was wasted on him, and he begged me to give him the inside track on what drugs to take to win gold without the eternal shame of a life ban.’
  • ‘He considers this sardonic memoir of childhood in a small corner of the British Empire’
  • ‘Depicting a story of war, aggression and greed, he takes a sardonic look at the reality of this entire production.’
  • ‘His latest book, After Britain, is a comparably sardonic performance.’
  • ‘In my experience all it takes to shatter the take-charge persona of a master is a mildly sardonic tone or a heel to the nuts.’
  • ‘Their sardonic remarks to each of the arguments put forth by the other teams sent waves of laughter among the crowd.’
  • ‘Stephen could place his own sardonic stamp on what were in some cases widely shared late Victorian literary tastes.’
  • ‘Many sardonic Australians find ways of making a play on these words.’
  • ‘Like most of the first smart, sardonic novel, the story appears to have been thrown out with contemptuous ease.’
  • ‘He was witty, teasing and flamboyant and his dialogue delivery racy and sardonic.’
  • ‘He does have a sardonic streak of humour, which erupts ever so quietly in sporadic bursts.’
  • ‘It seems to be aiming for a modern Catcher in the Rye with its sardonic, rancorous troubled kid character.’
  • ‘He sits in the Yorkshire court with a sardonic but kindly female family judge and a humourless martinet.’

  Synonyms

  mocking, satirical

  View synonyms