All 9 Uses of

sardonic
in
Of Human Bondage

Clutton, the most silent of them all, remained behind listening, with a sardonic smile on his lips, to Cronshaw's maunderings.†
Chpt 41-42 *

sardonic = humorous in a mocking, cynical, or ironic way

The genial disdain of Michel Rollin, who called them impostors, was answered by him with vituperation, of which crapule and canaille were the least violent items; he amused himself with abuse of their private lives, and with sardonic humour, with blasphemous and obscene detail, attacked the legitimacy of their births and the purity of their conjugal relations: he used an Oriental imagery and an Oriental emphasis to accentuate his ribald scorn.†
Chpt 43-44

Clutton did not answer, but looked at the master with his usual air of sardonic indifference to the world's opinion.†
Chpt 43-44

He sat quietly, with a sardonic expression on his gaunt face, and spoke only when the opportunity occurred to throw in a witticism.†
Chpt 43-44

Clutton, more taciturn than ever, did not answer, but he looked at Lawson with a sardonic air.†
Chpt 47-48

They began to talk, and finding Clutton more loquacious and less sardonic than usual, Philip determined to take advantage of his good humour.†
Chpt 49-50

His sardonic manner, his hostile aloofness, had made it difficult to know him; but it seemed to Philip, looking back, that there had been in him a tragic force, which sought vainly to express itself in painting.†
Chpt 87-88

There was a sardonic twinkle in Philip's eyes, which made the painter intensely uncomfortable, and he could not tell that Philip's heart was heavy with despair.†
Chpt 105-106

Definition:

humor in a mocking or critical way from someone who acts as though they are superior

or:

humor that is cynical or ironic