sneer

Etymology

verb

1. (intransitive) To raise a corner of the upper lip slightly, especially in scorn
2. (transitive) To utter with a grimace or contemptuous expression; to say sneeringly.
   to sneer fulsome lies at a person
   "Now here's someone who should attend privilege workshops," sneered she.

noun

1. A facial expression where one slightly raises one corner of the upper lip, generally indicating scorn.
   He supposed then (with a sneer—M. Paul could sneer supremely, curling his lip, opening his nostrils, contracting his eyelids)—he supposed there was but one form of appeal to which I would listen … 1835, Charlotte Brontë, chapter XXX, in Villette
2. A display of contempt; scorn.
   And wordy attacks against slavery drew sneers from observers which were not altogether undeserved. The authors were compared to doctors who offered to a patient nothing more than invectives against the disease which consumed him. 1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 24
   It was a casual sneer, obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent, and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 8, in The China Governess
   During [Tucker] Carlson’s keynote, he wedged sneers at his critics for crying “racist!” in between racist remarks about [Ilhan] Omar, jeremiads against the media (“I know there’s a bunch of reporters here, so . . . screw you”), and an attack on Elizabeth Warren and her donors (“She’s a tragedy, because she’s now obsessed with racism, which is why the finance world supports her”)—all to gleeful applause. 2019-7-24, David Austin Walsh, “Flirting With Fascism”, in Jewish Currents