(Discover even more words in The Writer’s Body Lexicon.)

“A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow.” ~ Ovid

Powerful Expressions, Frowns

Here are almost 500 ideas for adding frowns to narrative — without worrying it to death.

Before we get started, note that a frown on one’s face can be shortened to a frown. No point in bloating your writing with superfluous words.

Emotion Beats and Physical Manifestations

Why do your characters frown? A frown may indicate many emotions, including:

aggravation, aggression, agitation, anger, belligerence, concentration, confusion, constraint, contemplation, defeat, defiance, denial, determination, disagreement, disappointment, disapproval, disbelief, discomfort, doubt, embarrassment, exasperation, impatience, insecurity, introspection, irritation, nervousness, oppression, pessimism, shame, skepticism, stubbornness, uncertainty, unease, worry

A speedy way to tell readers about the emotion behind a character’s frown is to form an adjective from one of the preceding words. For example:

Aggravation: aggravated frown

Introspection: introspective frown

Better approach: Pick an emotion and act it out in front of a mirror. Feel the emotion and how it affects you. Besides the frown, would you blush? clench your jaw? flare your nostrils? grind your teeth?

If you need additional beats, consult a body language dictionary. (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Adjectives

As you experiment with words in this section, heed opinion adjectives and stacked modifiers.

If you think a descriptor might be inappropriate to describe a frown, google it to see how other writers and poets use it. For example: “accusatory frown” or “agonized frown.” Include quotation marks around the phrases for best search results.

You’ll find phrases similar to these:

Accusatory frown

and then he gawked with an accusatory frown

an accusatory frown creased her forehead.

pointing it at his chest, with an accusatory frown

her eyebrows tangled in an accusatory frown

his brows squished together in an accusatory frown

with an accusatory frown on his disconsolate face

Agonized frown

produced an agonized frown

a forehead furrowed into an agonized frown.

from broad smile to agonized frown

smoothing away the creases in his agonized frown

reflecting and debating, with an agonized frown

an agonized frown marring his baby face

she murmured with an agonized frown

Remember as you admire the writing of others that you should never plagiarize their work. Instead, leverage their words to inspire new ideas.

A and B
accusatory, agonized, aloof, angry, annoyed, antagonistic, anxious, apparent, apprehensive, argumentative, ashen, attentive, automatic, bad-tempered, baffled, baleful, belligerent, bestial, bewildered, big, bilious, bitter, bizarre, black, bleak, brief, brooding, brutish

C
cantankerous, censorious, chagrined, cheerless, chiding, cold, colossal, concerned, confused, constant, contemplative, contemptuous, convincing, crabby, cranky, crestfallen, critical, cruel, crusty, curious, cynical

D
dark, daunting, deep, defiant, dejected, demented, demoniacal, demoralizing, derisive, detached, determined, disappointed, disapproving, disconsolate, discouraged, disdainful, disenchanted, disgruntled, disheartened, dismal, disobedient, disparaging, dispirited, dispiriting, displeased, dissatisfied, dogged, doleful, dour, downcast, dreaded, dreadful, dubious

E
embittered, empathetic, enormous, entrenched, ephemeral, etched, eternal, everlasting, ever-present, exaggerated, exasperated

F
faint, familiar, feral, ferocious, fiendish, fierce, fixed, fleeting, flippant, forbidding, formidable, forced, foreseeable, foul, fractious, frightful, frigid, frosty, frozen, frustrated, furious

G and H
gelid, genuine, gigantic, gloomy, gnarled, grave, grim, grumpy, habitual, half, harsh, hateful, haughty, heart-wrenching, heavy, hellish, hideous, hostile

I
ill-humored, ill-tempered, immense, impatient, imperious, impersonal, implacable, indifferent, indignant, indomitable, inevitable, inflexible, inhuman, innate, inquisitive, insolent, instinctive, intense, intimidating, involuntary, irate, irked, irrational, irreverent, irritated

J to M
jeering, joyless, judgmental, judicial, knotted, least, little, livid, lumpy, malevolent, malignant, manic, massive, melancholy, menacing, mild, mirthless, mocking, momentary, monstrous, moody, morose, murderous, musing, mystified

N and O
nasty, nefarious, nervous, obdurate, obstinate, obvious, occasional, off-putting, ominous, omnipresent, oppressive, ornery, overpowering

P
pained, painful, passing, peeved, pensive, permanent, perpetual, perplexed, persistent, pessimistic, petulant, pitiless, pleading, poisonous, portentous, predictable, preoccupied, pronounced, puzzled

Q and R
quick, quizzical, rebellious, recurrent, reflective, reflexive, remorseless, reproachful, repulsive, resolute, restless, rigid, roguish, rueful

S
sad, sardonic, savage, scathing, scornful, serious, set, severe, sharp, short-lived, sinister, skeptical, slight, slit-eyed, small, snooty, solemn, somber, sorrowful, sour, spectral, spontaneous, stark, stern, stiff, stony, strained, sudden, sulky, sullen, supercilious, surly, suspicious, sympathetic

T
tenacious, terrible, terrific, terrifying, thoughtful, threatening, tight, tiny, tormented, transient, transitory, tremulous, troubled, truculent

U
ugly, unblinking, uncertain, unchanging, unconscious, uneasy, unexpected, unflinching, unforgiving, unfriendly, unhappy, unmistakable, unnerving, unpleasant, unrelenting, unremitting, unwarranted, unwavering, unyielding, usual

V to W
vengeful, venomous, wan, warning, warped, waspish, whopping, wicked, withering, worried, wrathful, wry

Similes and Metaphors

Whenever you include frown or its surrogates in phrases such as the following, bear in mind that your narrators or characters might not express themselves the same way you do.

Teenagers, university professors, construction workers, and royalty (especially monarchs in period-fiction novels) should communicate with unique voices.

Do any of the following phrases stimulate your creativity?

A bomb about to detonate

A face like a thunder cloud

A kisser like a spurned suitor bent on revenge

A mien as menacing as one’s attitude

A mug like a death sentence

A perpetual scowl, his surrogate face

A puss like the butt of a bad joke

An attitude as cold as an executioner’s ax

An expression as dark as a black hole

An expression heralding bad news

As final as death

As frigid as an ex-[spouse, lover, et al.]

Like a gargoyle mask

Like a sudden blizzard

Like an unexpected tornado

The face of an angry ape

The mug of an enraged monster

Veiled with furrows of indifference

Wearing a lour like a bad omen

Wearing a permanent pucker of the brow

Verbs and Phrasal Verbs

Frowns are not inert expressions. They might:

A to U
appear, cloud one’s face, crease one’s brow, darken one’s expression, daunt, deepen, demoralize, disappear, distort one’s face, form, frighten, furrow one’s face, grow, intensify, intimidate, knot one’s forehead, mar one’s features, menace, mock, recur, repulse, settle on one’s face, sharpen, soften, threaten, unnerve

Remembering that frown verbs might be transitive or intransitive, scan the Adjectives section for words you could convert into verbs. For example:

Dispirited: dispirit
John’s frown dispirited me even more than my demotion and the subsequent loss in pay.

Entrenched: entrench
A deep frown entrenched itself in the old geezer’s gnarled forehead.

Frozen: freeze
His icy frown impaled me, freezing me to the spot.

Irked: irk
His unexpected frown irked me. Why was he upset? I was the one with the broken leg.

Persistent: persist
Her truculent frown persisted long after I apologized for being late.

Stiff: stiffen
A frown stiffened her angry face into a monstrosity stonier than the gargoyles I once saw when I toured France.

Terrifying: terrify
His deep frown terrified me, engulfing me in a wave of nausea and trembling.

Warped: warp
A sudden frown warped his regal features. I cringed.

Nouns

Any word will irritate readers if overused, including the and said.

Try some of these substitutes if you need to replace repetitions of frown in your work:

A to G
angry face, angry look, angry stare, black look, clouded countenance, clumped brow, contorted brow, creased forehead, crinkled brow, death stare, dirty look, evil eye, forbidding aspect, furrowed brow, glare, gloomy countenance, glower, grimace

K to W
knitted brows, lour, lower, moue, puckered brow, scowl, scrunched forehead, squinched brows, stern stare, stern visage, sullen look, the “look,” twisted face, wince, wrathful visage, wrinkled brow, wry face

Props

Writers can draw readers’ attention to frowns by adding props.

Bushy eyebrows might wriggle like ugly caterpillars when an unwelcome suitor ogles his love interest.

White circles caused by tanning goggles might seem whiter when eyes are squinched by a frown.

A veil could shroud a protagonist’s expression.

Pick a prop that suits your character. Then create descriptive phrases that enliven your writing.

A to L
acne, bandage, beauty mark, bindi, birthmark, blackhead, blemish, blindfold, boil, Botox, bronzer, bushy eyebrows, chicken pox, dermabrasion, eye shadow, eyelashes, eyepatch, fake tan, false eye, false eyelashes, fingers massaging the forehead, freckles, glasses, hair in the eyes, hat, headband, keratoses, laceration, laugh lines, lotion

M to V
measles, missing eyebrows, mole, mottled skin, mud mask, party mask, piercings, pimple, runny mascara, scar, scarf partially obscuring the face, smallpox, smallpox scar, smudged makeup, Steri-Strips, stress lines, sunblock, sunburn, surgical mask, sutures, sweat, sweatband, tanning goggles, tattoos, tears, tweezed eyebrows, veil

Clichés and Idioms

I couldn’t find many idioms that include frown used as a noun, but consider replacing the ones I did discover:

To put on/wear a frown: frown, glare, glower, grimace, scowl

Upside-down frown: beam, grin, simper, smile, smirk

See also 200+ Ways to Say “Frown or Scowl,” 300+ Words to Describe Skin, and 400+ Ways to Describe Eyes.