snib
UK/snɪb/
snib noun: a latch or fastening for a door, window etc.
Noun
snib (plural snibs)
- A latch or fastening for a door, window etc.
- He did not like me coming in except if I was going to bed. I heard him saying to my maw about a snib for the door.2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 99
- A reprimand; a snub.
- ill - strain'd snibs1601 (date written), Iohn Marston [i.e., John Marston], What You Will, London: […] G[eorge] Eld, for Thomas Thorppe, published 1607, →OCLC, (please specify the page)
Verb
snib (third-person singular simple present snibs, present participle snibbing, simple past and past participle snibbed)
- To latch (a door, window, etc.).
- Window is snibbed on the inner side. Framework is solid. No hinges at the side. Let us open it.1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Sherlock Holmes Gives a Demonstration”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, page 90
- All moved to the front street, where Grierson snibbed on his tail-light and turned to ask the trooper, "They've got the main road ploughed up farther on, haven't they?"1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 162
- to rebuke, to scold, to reprimand
- As at the stok the bere; Snybbith the hardy houndis that ar ken.
Forms of snib
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | snibs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | snibs |
| present participle | snibbing |
| past participle | snibbed |
| past | snibbed |
Origin of snib
To the same root as snub. For the sense reprimant, compare cognate Old Norse sneypa (“to rebuff, infringe, etc”). The etymology appears visible in Nordic cognates, to an original sense of “pinching off” (→ “to repress, infringe”), really “snipping off” (Old Norse sneypa, Norwegian Nynorsk snøypa, Swedish snöpa, snoppa, snipa, snippa (“to pinch off, to squeeze off, to castrate”)), with nouns denoting “pinched end → point” (cf. Swedish snip (“snout, spout”), snibb (“lobe”)). The latch sense could stem from older latches which were lobe-shaped, then analog to Swedish snibb (“lobe”). Another idea could be that the 'latch action' derives from the action of “pinching off” becoming “closing off”. A third idea could be that it derives from reprimanding through “locking” a door. The term may also have been affected by words like snap via the “snapping” action of a latch.
Words formed from snib
Words that rhyme with snib
Questions about snib
- What does snib mean?
- Snib means a latch or fastening for a door, window etc.
- What part of speech is snib?
- Snib can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce snib?
- Snib is pronounced /snɪb/ (UK).
- What is the plural of snib?
- The plural of snib is snibs.
Words near snib in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: snib (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-snib.ogg.
Cite this entry: “snib.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/snib. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.