arridere
to smile upon, to favour
verb ar-REE-deh-reh Rare
Origin: Latin arridere (to smile at, to please)
Also means
to be favourable
Usage Note
Arridere is a formal, literary verb used almost exclusively in the third person: la fortuna gli arride ('fortune smiles upon him'). It conjugates like ridere but is never used for a simple physical smile; sorridere covers that. It takes essere as its auxiliary in compound tenses. Rarely encountered outside literary or journalistic prose.
Examples
"La fortuna non sempre arride ai meritevoli."
Natural Translation
Fortune does not always smile on the deserving.
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