smile on something/someone

smile | American Dictionary

smile
noun[ C ]
us/smɑɪl/
an expression on the face in which the ends of the mouth curve up slightly, often with the lips moving apart so that the teeth can be seen, expressing esp. happiness, pleasure, amusement, or a friendly feeling:
a big/happy/pretty smile
a smile of joy/satisfaction/amusement
We exchanged smiles as we passed in the hallway.

smiley

adjectiveus/ˈsmɑɪ·li/
infml
He’s a very smiley, friendly baby.
smile
verb[ I/T ]
us/smɑɪl/
to make a happy or friendly expression in which the ends of the mouth curve up slightly:
[ I ]I couldn’t help smiling.
[ I ]When he smiled at me, I knew everything was OK.
[ I ]She smiled to herself.
[ T ]He smiled a happy smile.

Examples of smile

smile
There is an intricate co-ordination of pausing and looking within turns, followed by head-nods, smiles, and gazes.
The publisher smiled at the illustrator of the writers who was dressed colorfully.
She touched the doll briefly then put the bowl down in her lap, rocking it gently with both hands and smiling occasionally.
The unfriendly faces, illuminated by the glow of the fire, communicate their unified defiance through the faintest of smiles.
Positive affect was coded if children exhibited any overt smiles or laughter during the observation.
Responses consisted of choosing between "good," represented with a smiling face, or "bad," represented with a frowning face.
She presents this to you; you smilingly wear it, and, still smiling, show it to ten of your friends outside.
She turns and smiles at any man who'll lift his head.
He smiled now, showing off the gold caps on his teeth.
Pace and mood may be set with smiles, jokes, frowns, exclamations, and volume, rapidity, or intonation of speech.
The hypocritical smiles are cracking the overdone make-up of its faces and facades held uneasily by feeble cardboard props.
Psychologists also find that responses to these surveys are ' validated ' fairly consistently by psychological measures of happiness, such as respondents smiling more.
The woman smiles back at them confidently and walks away, which indicates that it is no big deal for her - she has done it before.
As his wife saw glimpses of her husband's personality emerge, she wept and smiled, encouraging and reassuring him.
One smiles at the attempt to make the false attribution more credible by embroidering it with a year of composition and place of performance.
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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.