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big smile

big smile

47 1.0
A wide friendly movement of the mouth that shows happiness
  • noun
  • /bɪɡ smaɪl/
translation icon : gran sonrisa
  • I went to my room with a big smile on my face.
  • a big smile on his face

And she kept walking toward me with this big smile, and I'm going.

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Examples

  • Her broad, clever face breaks into a big smile as they both remove earplugs.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • At the end of it, she sat back and gave me a big smile.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • And you see the big smile come over her face.

  • You seem like you got a big smile on your face.

  • Here we go, big smile on your face, feel the win.

  • When you look back at your football career, yeah, big smile on your face, a really, really amazing career.

  • Give me a big smile and wave at your partner.

  • How about giving us a big smile?

  • Little Pam looked up from the diary and gave me a big smile.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • The children greeted their teacher with a big smile as she entered the classroom.

Synonyms

smile
vsbig smile
1.0

A facial expression with the mouth corners turned up to show happiness or friendliness

is specifically wide and friendly, not just any general expression
grin
vsbig smile
139 1.0

A broad smile showing the teeth when someone is happy or amused

is wider and more friendly rather than just amusement
warm smile
vsbig smile
4 1.0

A friendly expression on the face that shows real kindness

is wider and more openly friendly than this
twinkly-eyed smile
vsbig smile
5.6

A warm happy expression with bright lively eyes

is wider and friendlier rather than focusing on eye sparkle
mahoosive grin
vsbig smile
  • Slang
8.9

A very large, wide smile that shows great happiness

is wide and friendly but less extreme in emotional size
merry smile
vsbig smile
1.1

A happy look on someone's face that shows joy

is wider and friendlier, not only joyful in tone

Antonyms

54 1.0

A facial expression with the eyebrows pushed together showing dislike or worry

15 3.9

An angry look that shows you do not like something

How Big

beaming
2.5
big smile
47 1.0
grin
139 1.0
smile
1.0

Surface Forms

big smile singular
big smiles plural

Morphology

big + smile

The meaning 'a wide and friendly smile' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'big' (large) with 'smile' (a facial expression); the adjective simply scales the noun. This adjective+noun compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows regular English modification rules, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand the MWE.

Etymology

Big smile comes from the simple picture of a mouth opened wide — big and smile — that makes a face look bright and friendly. So, it means 'a wide and friendly smile'.