rictus

Etymology

From Latin rictus, participle of ringor (“open the mouth wide”)

Noun

rictus (plural rictuses)

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

   'His face was a rictus of sheer delight.

Quotations

• 1990 - Voivod, Nothingface

  Valves plugs pumps to erase/ rictus from my face.

• 1993 – Wolfenstein 3D, Episode 3, Level 9, after defeating Hitler

  The absolute incarnation of evil, Adolf Hitler, lies at your feet in a pool of his own blood. His wrinkled, crimson-splattered visage still strains, a jagged-toothed rictus trying to cry out. Insane even in death. Your lips pinched in bitter victory, you kick his head off his remains and spit on his corpse.

• 2001 — Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, p 56

  It squinted at her through the hated light, its brow a rictus of pain and fear.

• 2008 — Sean Williams, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, p 81

  The apprentice watched his Master, pain twisting his features into a rictus.

Derived terms

• rictal