frown.
A wrinkling of the forehead with the eyebrows brought together, typically indicating displeasure, severity, or concentration.
Meaning & usage
A wrinkling of the forehead with the eyebrows brought together, typically indicating displeasure, severity, or concentration.
A downturn of the corners of the mouth, typically expressing sadness.
Any facial expression that indicates disapproval or displeasure.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English frown, froun (“a threatening appearance; lowering of the clouds”), from frounen (“to frown”). See below.
To have a frown on one's face.
She frowned when I told her the news.
To manifest displeasure or disapprobation; to look with disfavour or threateningly.
Noisy gossip in the library is frowned upon.
To repress or repel by expressing displeasure or disapproval; to rebuke with a look.
Let us frown the impudent fellow into silence.
To communicate by frowning.
Frank frowned his displeasure with my proposal.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English frounen (“to frown as an expression of disapproval, displeasure, shame, fear, or jealousy”), from Old French froignier, froingnier, frognier (“to wrinkle the mouth or forehead, frown, scowl”), of uncertain and disputed origin. Perhaps from Medieval Latin fruncāre (“to wrinkle, crease, turn up one's nose, make a face, frown”) (compare Old High German fruncetura (“wrinkle”), via Latin), from Frankish *hrunkwittjā (“wrinkle”)/*hrunkwōn (“to wrinkle”), whence Old High German runza (“wrinkle”). See also French froncer (“to frown, scowl”). Alternatively, perhaps from Gaulish *frognā (“nostril”), from Proto-Celtic *srognā (“nose”). Still yet, perhaps of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish fryna (“to frown, frown with one's nose, make a wry face”), Norwegian frøyna (“to wrinkle up one's nose, make a wry face; snort”). Compare also dialectal English frine (“to frown, whine, complain”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.