How to Use smarmy in a Sentence

smarmy

adjective

• The smarmy young taxi driver who took people to and from the party?
  — Lloyd Sachs, chicagotribune.com, 13 July 2017
• Earnestness comes through even in jokey, smarmy versions.
  — Dan Deluca, Philly.com, 22 June 2017
• That smarmy joke about dumb blondes that a colleague tells at lunch demeans all women.
  — Michelle Ruiz, Vogue, 17 Apr. 2018
• And not just the usual obvious targets, like the smarmy hypocrites at court.
  — Ben Brantley, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2018
• For instance, the media calls me smarmy, sarcastic, all kinds of awful things.
  — Fox News, 19 Sep. 2018
• The standard plot — young boy and heroic, smarmy dog confront bad guys — was perfect fodder for children.
  — Finn Cohen, New York Times, 27 Jan. 2017
• Yet Ms Clifford is no smarmy British comic or slippery senator.
  — The Economist, 22 Mar. 2018
• Most kids’ animation is pap: conventions and tropes punched up with smarmy double entendre for the benefit of the adults who bought the tickets.
  — Rumaan Alam, The New Yorker, 23 Apr. 2020
• In his grand delusions and smarmy self-importance, Connor is the least affected by the toxic struggle consuming the rest of the family.
  — Andrew R. Chow, Time, 8 Aug. 2019
• Watching a smarmy seducer gets his comeuppance is good unclean fun.
  — Christopher Arnott, courant.com, 12 Nov. 2019
• Without giving too much away, it’s a story of a rivalry between a geeky computer programmer and his smarmy boss, with some World War I dog-fighting thrown in.
  — Jonathan H. Liu, WIRED, 19 Aug. 2010
• Robert Mitchum follows as the smarmy billionaire bachelor who treats the isle of Manhattan as his business headquarters.
  — Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 19 Apr. 2019
• Their responses to widespread, serious criticism can be grandiose and smarmy.
  — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Wired, 15 Jan. 2020
• They'll be taught to reveal, not conceal, their honest feelings, to distrust smarmy men, to like a guy with a reindeer for a friend, to learn that leadership requires thoughtful introspection.
  — Chris Jones, chicagotribune.com, 23 Mar. 2018
• But the Mind Flayer could just as easily be lurking within the smarmy new mayor or the creepy police officer who seems to be tracking Hopper—or maybe even Hopper himself.
  — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 21 June 2019
• His presence here can be chalked up to the fact that Underwater was filmed almost three years ago, but that doesn’t make his penchant for agitated, smarmy line-readings any less exhausting.
  — David Sims, The Atlantic, 9 Jan. 2020
• Both are veterans of the talk-show circuit, but Short has clearly mastered the form, appearing on David Letterman’s show more than 30 times, always full of old-school insults, showbiz stories and a put-on, smarmy charm.
  — Nicole Brodeur, The Seattle Times, 1 July 2018
• Whether or not the characterization was ever fair, the Bluetooth headset was the accoutrement of smarmy business men talking loud on the phone in inappropriate places.
  — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 12 June 2018
• Plaza insisted that Lenny's original, somewhat gendered dialogue—smarmy, crass, with a barstool intellectual's love of old-timey vocab—be kept in tact.
  — Nojan Aminosharei, Marie Claire, 13 June 2018
• But mostly the screen just projected what people really wanted to see: Shawn striking poses with his guitar, Shawn tousling his black hair, Shawn subtly flexing his arms in a way that miraculously doesn’t seem smarmy.
  — Ashley Naftule, azcentral, 10 July 2019
• Their sole quant, that deliciously smarmy guy (Will Rolan), has mastered an algorithm that’s the equivalent to Bobby Axelrod’s mind, only without all the irrationalities and strutting.
  — refinery29.com, 4 June 2018
• Carrying the filmmaker's political banner is Matthew Modine, playing a smart and smarmy countercultural Marine recruit.
  — Thr Staff, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 June 2017
• Yes, he's a smarmy know-it-all with the personality of a hall monitor, the kind of guy everyone hides from at a Christmas party.
  — Bill Simmons, ESPN, 2 Aug. 2004

Last Updated: 12 Nov 2024