Crooked face

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Marius Hancu - 28 Jul 2009 15:05 GMT

Hello:

Are there better current alternatives to
"make a crooked face at someone"
(including slang)
which is well represented in Shakespeare?

Thanks.
Marius Hancu

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Peter Duncanson (BrE) - 28 Jul 2009 15:52 GMT

>Hello:
>
>Are there better current alternatives to
>"make a crooked face at someone"
>(including slang)
>which is well represented in Shakespeare?

"Grimace"
"Make a face"
"Pull a face"

There may be other more specific phrases that I can't think of at the
moment.

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=pull%20a%20face

(v) grimace, make a face, pull a face (contort the face to indicate
a certain mental or emotional state) "He grimaced when he saw the
amount of homework he had to do"

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pull_a_face

pull a face (third-person singular simple present pulls a face,
present participle pulling a face, simple past and past participle
pulled a face)

1. (idiomatic) To make an abnormal facial expression

http://www.yourdictionary.com/pull-a-face

make a face
to distort the face, esp. in a way expressing contempt, distaste,
humor, etc.
also Chiefly Brit.pull a face

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Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

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Ian Jackson - 28 Jul 2009 16:02 GMT

>>Hello:
>>
[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]
> humor, etc.
> also Chiefly Brit.pull a face

Not quite the same thing, but check "gurning".
For example:
<http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&ei=UxJvSof2GMTKjAeqk6CXBQ&resnum
=0&q=gurning&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=lRJvSs-GOdzLjAf5jciYBQ&sa=X&oi=image_result
_group&ct=title&resnum=1>

Signature

Ian

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R H Draney - 28 Jul 2009 19:39 GMT

Ian Jackson filted:

>>>Are there better current alternatives to
>>>"make a crooked face at someone"
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>=0&q=gurning&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=lRJvSs-GOdzLjAf5jciYBQ&sa=X&oi=image_result
>_group&ct=title&resnum=1>

And then there was Harpo Marx and his "gookie":

http://boludalia.blogspot.com/2007/07/harpo-does-gookie.html

Harpo named it for a cigarmaker from his childhood, a Mr Guercke, who would
become so caught up in the detail work of rolling a cigar that his face would
screw up in this manner....r

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A pessimist sees the glass as half empty.
An optometrist asks whether you see the glass
more full like this?...or like this?

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Chuck Riggs - 29 Jul 2009 14:17 GMT

>Hello:
>
>Are there better current alternatives to
>"make a crooked face at someone"
>(including slang)
>which is well represented in Shakespeare?

frown

Signature

Regards,

Chuck Riggs,
who speaks AmE, lives near Dublin, Ireland
and usually spells in BrE

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CDB - 29 Jul 2009 15:11 GMT

> Are there better current alternatives to
> "make a crooked face at someone"
> (including slang)
> which is well represented in Shakespeare?

I don't think anybody has mentioned "mop and mow" yet. Maybe there's
a reason it's hard to find in OneLook. It means "to pout", roughly:
to make a sad face and thrusst out the lower lip (from Dutch "moppen",
to pout, and French "moue", a pout, says my SOED3). Both the old
Webster's* at OneLook define it as "to pull a wry face".

It's Shakespearian too, but I'm sure I used to see it in Victorian
novels -- Dickens probably used it. If you have OED access, there's
probably lots more.

*Or Webster'ses. I don't believe that thread has ended in consensus.

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James Silverton - 29 Jul 2009 16:10 GMT

CDB wrote on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:11:45 -0400:

>> Are there better current alternatives to
>> "make a crooked face at someone"
>> (including slang)
>> which is well represented in Shakespeare?

> I don't think anybody has mentioned "mop and mow" yet. Maybe there's
> a reason it's hard to find in OneLook. It means "to
> pout", roughly: to make a sad face and thrusst out the lower lip
> (from Dutch "moppen", to pout, and French "moue", a pout, says
> my SOED3). Both the old Webster's* at OneLook define it as
> "to pull a wry face".

> It's Shakespearian too, but I'm sure I used to see it in
> Victorian novels -- Dickens probably used it. If you have OED
> access, there's probably lots more.

Is there are a technical term for emphasis by repetition like "mop and
mow"? Off hand, "hue and cry" comes to mind as another example.

Signature

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

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CDB - 29 Jul 2009 21:49 GMT

> CDB wrote on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:11:45 -0400:
>
>>> Are there better current alternatives to
>>> "make a crooked face at someone"
>>> (including slang)
>>> which is well represented in Shakespeare?

>> I don't think anybody has mentioned "mop and mow" yet. Maybe
>> there's a reason it's hard to find in OneLook. It means "to
>> pout", roughly: to make a sad face and thrusst out the lower lip
>> (from Dutch "moppen", to pout, and French "moue", a pout, says
>> my SOED3). Both the old Webster's* at OneLook define it as
>> "to pull a wry face".

>> It's Shakespearian too, but I'm sure I used to see it in
>> Victorian novels -- Dickens probably used it. If you have OED
>> access, there's probably lots more.

> Is there are a technical term for emphasis by repetition like "mop
> and mow"? Off hand, "hue and cry" comes to mind as another example.

Good question (can't say). I feel sure it's been thoroughly discussed
here, but when I tried to search the archives, for nothing more
demanding than the word "synonymous", I got only 19 hits, all of them
from this year. Not good.

Expletive pairings (/ Eks'plitIv/)? Synergic doublets? There were no
hits at all for either of those nouns.

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Paul Wolff - 29 Jul 2009 23:06 GMT

>James Silverton wrote:
>> CDB wrote on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:11:45 -0400:
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
>Expletive pairings (/ Eks'plitIv/)? Synergic doublets? There were no
>hits at all for either of those nouns.

Come, let us make an honourable retreat; though not with bag and
baggage, yet with scrip and scrippage.

<http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=as
youlikeit&Act=3&Scene=2&Scope=scene> Line 1272/3.

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Paul

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009

Crooked face