Possible Clues:

• Meaning the opposite to a flattening extent, perhaps
• Cruelly humorous
• Like a break-in at a burglar's house
• Paradoxical or sarcastic
• Sounds as if one might steal this, I see, but really means the opposite
• Sardonic
• Like the fact that "verb" is a noun, e.g.
• Unexpected, in a way
• You don't mean to be so flattening with this, I see
• Type of situation where one is mocked by fate