Meaning

Scornfully mocking or cynical..

Definitions by Sense

1. Scornfully mocking or cynical.
2. Disdainfully or ironically humorous.

Example Sentences

He distances himself from people with his nasty, sardonic laughter.

[Q]Uivering fears, Heart-tearing cares, / Anxious ſighs, Untimely tears, / Fly, fly to the Courts; / Fly to fond worldings ſports, / Where ſtrain’d Sardonick ſmiles are cloſing ſtill, / And grief is forc’d to laugh againſt her will; / Where mirth’s but mummery, / And ſorrows only real be.

At the opening of thoſe doors, what a ſight it muſt be to behold the plenipotentiaries of royal impotence, in the precedency which they will intrigue to obtain, and which will be granted to them according to the ſeniority of their degradation, ſneaking into the Regicide preſence, and with the reliques of the ſmile which they had dreſſed up, for the levee of their maſters, ſlill flickering on their curled lips, preſenting the faded remains of their courtly graces, to meet the ſcornful, ferocious, ſardonic grin of a bloody ruffian, who, whilſt he is receiving their homage, is meaſuring them with his eye, and fitting to their ſize the ſlider of his Guillotine!

The carriage stopped, the doctor alighted, walked swiftly back to where I had also halted, and told me in an excellent sardonic fashion that he feared the road was narrow, and that he hoped his carriage did not impede the passage of my bicycle.

Another manifestation, significantly reaching its apogee in the midst of Antonine virtues, was the growing popularity of adoxographical exercises. Mock panegyrics were dashed off, not just by sardonic intellectuals such as Lucian, but also by trained courtiers and polished encomiasts of the stamp of [Marcus Cornelius] Fronto.

Word Forms

• more sardonic
• most sardonic

Synonyms for sardonic

Related Words

When Should You Use Sardonic?

Use sardonic when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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