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
-
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
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'smarmy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Last Updated: