moustache-twirling

See also: moustache twirling

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

The act being a visual trope in film parodies of villains from 19th century melodrama.

Noun

moustache-twirling (plural moustache-twirlings)

  1. (colloquial, figurative) Behavior associated with villainy.
    • 1937 February, American Society of Cinematographers, Inc., American Cinematographer (Feb 1937)‎[1]:
      Now, Walter Huston is not of the eyebrow-waving school of cinema actors. He does not go in for moustache-twirling nor nostril-quivering. His is a strong, forceful character. He is not a magazine-cover lad.
    • 1987 August, Doctor Who Magazines‎[2]:
      And during the final story of the season, The Ultimate Foe, talk about hand-wringing, moustache-twirling, melodramatic villain laughs!
    • 1997 March, Douglas Alder, Computer Player!‎[3]:
      When it comes to accounting, there are four major suitors for the hand of small business. All promise paradise in day-to-day bookkeeping and vow to keep you on the right side ol that moustache-twirling Revenue Canada.
    • 2017, Samantha Ellis, Take Courage : Anne Brontë and the Art of Life‎[4]:
      In 1863, Caroline wrote a novel she hoped would support her campaign. In Lost and Saved, Beatrice Brooke elopes with dastardly, moustache-twirling Montagu Treherne.
  2. (literal) An instance of twirling one's moustache.

See also

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