frown

frown (fro̵un)

intransitive verb

Etymology: ME frounen < OFr frognier < froigne, sullen face < Gaul *frogna, nostrils, akin to OIr srón, nose

transitive verb

noun

frown′er noun frown′·ingly adverb

scowl, grimace, glower, glare, pout, wry face, gloomy countenance, forbidding aspect, stern visage, dirty look*.

scowl, grimace, lower, make a wry face, pout, glare, look black, knit the brow, sulk, glower, gloom, look stern, look daggers*.

Antonyms smile*, laugh*, grin.

Object

face: Father Brown looked him full in his frowning face.
providence: Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace, Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.

Converse of object

puzzle: Part 1 Chapter 1 - in which Four go through The Big Round Thing Sergeant Davis stared at the monitor with a puzzled frown.
wear: None of them, she noticed, seemed to wear a frown.

Adjective modifier

slight: She paced forward with a slight frown on her face.
dark: Then with a dark frown on her face she turned to one of the two telephones beside her and picked up the receiver.
deep: But his smile melted into a deep frown as he uttered the next few words wistfully.
angry: Looking up from the white surface of the link table, Stephanie met Roger's angry frown with one of her own.

Modifies a noun

line: For some, the eye starts to close first, for others, the smile or frown lines start to come back.
:(: Smilies are keyboard characters used to convey an emotion, such as a smile: ) or a frown:(.

Modifying Another Word

thoughtfully: He was frowning thoughtfully at three or four white pills or pellets that lay in a small tray beside a bottle of water.
slightly: Obviously I went to little school then I went on to Aylesbury Grammar School, and there acting was slightly frowned upon.
severely: Meanwhile, in school the use of regional dialects was severely frowned upon.
heavily: The town names were changed in 1917 - but in 1915 the schools were closed, church services were heavily frowned upon.
deeply: Setting is limited to about 12- 14 tables and they frown deeply on folk taking too long to eat thier meal.
generally: Beacon in the Dark The term 'the Dark Ages' is generally frowned upon by modern scholars.

Followed by an intransitive particle

upon: Shorts are frowned upon, whether for men or women.
down: It wasn't that premarital sex was frowned down upon by my people, nor even disapproved of exactly.

Used with why or when

when: But he frowned when he saw me and shook his head.

Preposition: of

concentration: Deep lines on his forehead mark his frown of concentration.

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