smarmyadjective
uk/ˈsmɑː.mi/us/ˈsmɑːr.mi/informal disapprovingextremely polite or helpful or showing a lot of respect in a way that is annoying or does not seem sincere:
She was trying to be friendly, but she just seemed smarmy and insincere.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Affected & insincere
- affectation
- affected
- artificial
- artsy-fartsy
- arty-farty
- cheesy
- fey
- forced
- glib
- histrionic
- histrionics
- meretricious
- pious
- preciously
- precocious
- pretension
- pretentious
- pseud
- slick
- theatrical
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smarm
verb [ I or T ] uk/smɑːm/us/smɑːrm/UK
He's always trying to smarm his way into a promotion.
smarmily
adverb uk/ˈsmɑː.məl.i/us/ˈsmɑːr.məl.i/
"Certainly, sir," he replied smarmily.