A snarl is a sound, often a growl or vicious utterance, often accompanied by a

facial expression A facial expression is one or more motions or positions of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. According to one set of controversial theories, these movements convey the emotional state of an individual to observers. Facial expressions are ...

, where the upper lip is raised, and the nostrils widen, generally indicating

hate Hatred is an intense negative emotional response towards certain people, things or ideas, usually related to opposition or revulsion toward something. Hatred is often associated with intense feelings of anger, contempt, and disgust. Hatred is ...

anger Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, su ...

pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...

. In addition to

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

s, other

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fu ...

s including

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit spec ...

s and

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative ...

s snarl, often to warn others of their potential bite. In humans, snarling uses the

levator labii superioris alaeque nasi muscle The levator labii superioris alaeque nasi muscle is, translated from Latin, the "lifter of both the upper lip and of the wing of the nose". It has the longest name of any muscle in an animal. The muscle is attached to the upper frontal process ...

. The threatening vocalizations of snarling are often accompanied by or used synonymously with threatening facial expressions. The word "snarl" is also used as an

onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', '' ...

for the threatening noise to which it refers, as in the 'snarl' of a chainsaw. This usage may derive from the common expression describing a dog as "growling and snarling". One literary use of "snarl" to mean a noise is in ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's bo ...

'' in the encounter with the

barrow-wight Barrow-wights are wraith-like creatures in J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth. In '' The Lord of the Rings'', the four hobbits are trapped by a barrow-wight, and are lucky to escape with their lives; but they gain ancient swords of West ...

: "''In the dark there was a snarling noise''".

References

Aggression {{Psych-stub