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''rictus'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260211112127-00-⌔

rictus - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

rictus (plural rictus or rictuses)

  • A bird ’s gaping mouth.
  • The throat of a calyx.
  • Any open-mouthed expression.
    • ✤ His face was a rictus of sheer delight.
    • ✤ Amid a thick, bristling beard, a nose like an owl’s beak and a mouth whose corners were drawn by a wild-beast-like rictus were just discernible.1
    • ✤ A rictus of cruel malignity lit up greyly their old bony faces.2
    • ✤ Sword and shield, bone and steel/Rictus grin/Deaf forever to the battle’s din3
    • ✤ Valves plugs pumps to erase/rictus from my face.4
    • ✤ The absolute incarnation of evil, Adolf Hitler, lies at your feet in a pool of his own blood. His wrinkled, crimson-splattered visage still strains, a jagged-toothed rictus trying to cry out. Insane even in death. Your lips pinched in bitter victory, you kick his head off his remains and spit on his corpse.5
    • ✤ It squinted at her through the hated light, its brow a rictus of pain and fear.6
    • ✤ The apprentice watched his Master, pain twisting his features into a rictus.7

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin rictus.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈɹɪk.təs/, /ˈɹɪk.tʊs/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ɪktəs

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1899, Victor Hugo, translated by Paul Maurice, The Memoirs of Victor Hugo: ↩

  2. 1916, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: ↩

  3. 1986, “Deaf Forever”, performed by Motörhead: ↩

  4. 1990, “Nothingface”, performed by Voivod: ↩

  5. 1993, Wolfenstein 3D, scene: after defeating Hitler (episode 3), level/area: 9: ↩

  6. 2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 56: ↩

  7. 2008, Sean Williams, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, page 81: ↩