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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rictus

Rictus \Ric"tus\, n. [L., the aperture of the mouth.] The gape of the mouth, as of birds; -- often resricted to the corners of the mouth.

Wiktionary
rictus

n. 1 A bird's gaping mouth 2 Any open-mouthed expression

WordNet
rictus

n. a gaping grimace

Usage examples of "rictus".

Her lips fell away from her teeth in a rictus that was more smile than grin and then a kind of ecdysis began and her flesh ceased to shimmer and turned a dull gray.

During downtime, when the rest of them were getting drunk, or playing cards, or sleeping, Peery would stop whatever he was doing when a report came over the uplink broadcasts, his eyes too close to the screen and his body frozen in a rictus trance as he watched and listened.

And, after a moment, Sneezy laughed, too, although of course the Heechee laugh was not quite the same sound or rictus as the human.

His whole body spasmed, as if he were being shocked, and his face became a terrible rictus, his ulcerated eye staring upward.

With the conventional accompaniment of rattle and postlude of rictus and liquidity.

Curtis assured his aunt that Hermione was the most beautiful and fascinating person he had ever met, and Steingall listened to the eulogy with a grinning rictus of jaw.

With a rictus smile, he advanced stepwise on Miles till he could pin him to the wall by his neck with one big hand.

And as she steps out onto the patio, her Valkyrian bosom undulating with each step like a viscous liquid, a pterodactyl swoops down from the sky, snatches her in its beak, flies her to its nest, and drops her into the shrieking rictus of its offspring.

Unforgettable, again, was the complicit rictus that Richard now laid at his feet.

The Cyborg smiled, a stiff rictus to signify that the Durants must realize such as Glisson did not feel fatigue.

The Cyborg smiled, a stiff rictus to signify that the Durants must realize such as Glisson did not feel fatigue.

His facial muscles were locked in a tight rictus, and he took his fingers momentarily from the tribarrel's grips to massage the numbness out of them.

His facial muscles were locked in a tight rictus, and he took his fingers momentarily from the tribarrel’s grips to massage the numbness out of them.

Mungo's face was a rictus of pain and fear as his elbow scraped up the outthrust curve of granite, and then Kelyn jerked back again, pulled to solid ground.

Its head was bent stiffly toward Margo as if prepared to tell her a se­cret, sightless eye sockets bulging, mouth ossified into a rictus of pain.