Grī-māçe', n.

n. [Fr., from A.S. & Icel. grima, O. H. Ger. crima, mask, ghost.] A distortion of the countenance, whether habitual, from affectation, or momentary and occasional, to express some feeling, as contempt, disapprobation, complacency, or the like; a smirk; a made-up face.

“Half the French words used affectedly by Melantha, in Dryden's Marriage-a-la-Mode, as innovations in our language, are now in common use: chagrin, double-entendre, éclaircissement, embarras, équivoque, foible, grimace, naïveté, ridicule. All these words, which she learns by heart to use occasionally, are now in common use.” Disraeli.