grinning

Pluralgrinnings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of grin.

   Grinning widely, the boy ran to show his parents the trophy.

   The whole class sat there grinning at the teacher's joke.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. As a participle it builds progressives (she was grinning) and leading phrases (grinning widely, he ran). As a gerund it names the action while still behaving like a verb, which sets it apart from the countable noun. It is usually intransitive and takes at for its target, but it can also carry what the grin expresses: grinning their approval. A dated use means baring the teeth like a snarling dog.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of smiling broadly with the teeth showing, or the facial expression that results.

   The photographer captured the children's grinning as the clown handed out balloons.

   Her nonstop grinning during the interview seemed slightly forced.

   Similarsmiling, beaming

   Oppositefrowning, scowling

   Note

   Unlike the gerund, the noun can be counted, and its plural often turns grim. Macaulay in 1835 wrote of "the grinnings and writhings of a galvanized corpse," where the teeth are bared in repeated contortion rather than pleasure. Used uncountably it names a drawn-out activity, often with a note of judgment, as in nonstop grinning. For a single expression, grin itself is the usual word.

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