sneap
/sniːp/US/snip/
sneap verb: to bite, nip, or pinch (someone or something).
Verb
sneap (third-person singular simple present sneaps, present participle sneaping, simple past and past participle sneaped)
- To bite, nip, or pinch (someone or something).
- To check or abruptly reprove (someone); to chide, to rebuke, to reprimand.
- Nay, I am gone. I'm a man quickly sneaped.1611, Thomas Middleton, The Lady's Tragedy
- That vvee doe enough hate our corruptions, vvhen (at our ſharpeſt) vve doe but gently ſneape them, […]1623 February 12 (Gregorian calendar), Jos[eph] Hall, The Great Impostor, Laid Open in a Sermon at Grayes Inne, Febr. 2. 1623, London: […] J. Haviland for Nath[aniel] Butter, →OCLC, page 21
- Synonyms:
- snape
- To offend (someone); to put (someone's) nose out of joint.
- Some days after he, in a civil manner, sent a captain with them and other soldiers to Owthorpe, to inquire into their misdemeanours before their faces; which being confirmed to him, and he beginning to rebuke them, they set him at light, even before Mrs. Hutchinson's face, and made the poor man...1906, Lucy Hutchinson, Julius Hutchinson, Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, page 315
- And moreover she was convinced that her mother, secretly very flattered and delighted by the visit, was adopting a derisive attitude in order to 'show off' before her daughter. Parents are thus ingenuous! But she was so shocked and sneaped that she found it more convenient to say nothing.1911, Arnold Bennett, Hilda Lessways
Noun
sneap (plural sneaps)
Examples of sneap in a sentence
- John, the correct one, who could make you feel sneaped.2008, Ethel Wilson, P.K. Page, The Innocent Traveller, page 6:
- Hutchinson's face, and made the poor man retire sneaped to his colonel;1906, Lucy Hutchinson, Julius Hutchinson, Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, page 315:
- Friend, though appearing to be a hard-boiled member of the Committee is in fact very tender, and, as we say in north Staffordshire, easily sneaped or upset.1983, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Official Report of the Standing Committees, page 683:
Synonyms of sneap
Forms of sneap
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | sneaps |
| present participle | sneaping |
| past participle | sneaped |
| past | sneaped |
| alternative form | sneep |
| alternative form | snipe |
| Noun | |
| plural | sneaps |
Origin of sneap
The verb is a variant of snape, from Middle English snaipen (“to injure; of sleet or snow: to nip; to criticize, rebuke, revile”) [and other forms], from Old Norse sneypa (“to disgrace, dishonour; to outrage”), from Proto-Germanic *snaupijaną, from Proto-Germanic *snūpaną, *snūbaną (“to cut, snap”); further origin unknown. The noun is derived from the verb.
Words that rhyme with sneap
Questions about sneap
- What does sneap mean?
- Sneap means to bite, nip, or pinch (someone or something).
- How do you use sneap in a sentence?
- John, the correct one, who could make you feel sneaped.
- What part of speech is sneap?
- Sneap can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce sneap?
- Sneap is pronounced /sniːp/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of sneap?
- The past tense of sneap is sneaped.
Words near sneap in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sneap (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sneap.wav.
Cite this entry: “sneap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sneap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.