There's daggers in men's smiles. (William Shakespeare)

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Beware of people who appear friendly but have hidden hostile intentions

Literally: daggers in men's smiles

Examples

There's daggers in men's smiles

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “There's daggers in men's smiles. (William Shakespeare)” mean?

Beware of people who appear friendly but have hidden hostile intentions Literally: daggers in men's smiles

Is “There's daggers in men's smiles. (William Shakespeare)” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.