Word
smug
US/ˈsməɡ/
UK/smˈʌɡ/
Definition
adj. feeling or showing too much pride in yourself. You act this way when you are very satisfied with your own success and think you are better than others.
adj. exhibiting excessive self-satisfaction or pride in one's achievements or qualities. Often carries a negative connotation of superiority or complacency.
Examples
“He had a smug look on his face after winning the game.”
“She felt a bit smug when her prediction about the weather turned out to be exactly right.”
“The CEO's smug attitude during the press conference alienated many long-term investors who were concerned about the company's declining market share.”
Examples
simple
“He had a smug look on his face after winning the game.”
contextual
“She felt a bit smug when her prediction about the weather turned out to be exactly right.”
complex
“The CEO's smug attitude during the press conference alienated many long-term investors who were concerned about the company's declining market share.”
Usage
Often used predicatively after linking verbs like 'look', 'feel', or 'seem'.
Real-World Examples
“Vance, by contrast, is absolutely the champion debater you remember from college, right down to his dead shark little eyes and his resting smug face.” Etymology
Originally "spruce, neat," from Low German smuk (“pretty”), from Middle Low German smuk (“lithe, delicate, neat, trim”), although the g of the English word is not easily explained. The ultimate source should be Proto-West Germanic *smeugan (“to crawl, creep”). From the Low German derived also North Frisian smok, Danish smuk and Swedish smukk (now obsolete or dialectal). Compare also Middle High German gesmuc (“ornament”) and smücken (“to dress, to adorn”), both ultimately from smiegen (“to press to, insert, wrap, to nestle”), hence German schmiegen, Schmuck and schmücken. The adjective schmuck, however, was borrowed from Low German. See smock for more.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/smug