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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.
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Link to original Footnotes
1899, Victor Hugo, translated by Paul Maurice, The Memoirs of Victor Hugo: ↩
1916, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: ↩
1986, “Deaf Forever”, performed by Motörhead: ↩
1990, “Nothingface”, performed by Voivod: ↩
1993, Wolfenstein 3D, scene: after defeating Hitler (episode 3), level/area: 9: ↩
2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 56: ↩
2008, Sean Williams, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, page 81: ↩
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