Word.ws English Dictionary

snirt

/snɜː(ɹ)t/

snirt verb: to give a suppressed laugh or sharp intake of breath.

Verb

snirt (third-person singular simple present snirts, present participle snirting, simple past and past participle snirted)

  1. (Scotland) To give a suppressed laugh or sharp intake of breath.
    • "He grins, and snirts, and thraws ye ken —1833, Anonymous, writing in The Dublin University Magazine: A Literary and Political Journal, page 575, "Willie and Pate"
    • "But ye see there was a great deal of blushing and snirting, and bits of made coughs, as if to keep down a thorough guffau."1837, James Hogg, “Katie Cheyne”, in Tales and Sketches, page 172

Noun (1)

snirt (plural snirts)

  1. (Scotland) A suppressed laugh; a sharp intake of breath.

Noun (2)

snirt (uncountable)

  1. (Canada, US) Snow that is dirty, often seen by the side of roads and parking lots that have been plowed.
    • We then have what we call ‘snirt’ storms.1975, United States House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture and Related Agencies, Agriculture and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1976, page 175
    • Snirt or a mixture of snow and dirt is the term popularly applied to the windrows of dirt along the roads during a Minnesota winter.1985, United States House Committee on Agriculture, General Farm Bill of 1985: Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, page 924

Examples of snirt in a sentence

  • The Whaup grew very red in the face, and ‘snirted’ with laughter."1871, William Black, A daughter of Heth: A novel, page 160:
  • Only a couple of blizzards and snirt and snuss storms.2004, Dean Norman, Studio Cards: Funny Greeting Cards and People Who Created Them, Trafford Publishing,, →ISBN, page 131:

Forms of snirt

Verb
third-person singular presentsnirts
present participlesnirting
past participlesnirted
pastsnirted
Noun
pluralsnirts

Origin of snirt

Origin uncertain. Either from Middle English snurten (“to sneer; snort, snore”), a variation of snorten (“to snort”); or from Middle English *snyrten, an alteration of fnyrten, fnerten, from Old English fnǣrettan. Compare also Norwegian snurt (“vexed, peevish”), Middle English snirt (“stern, gloomy”).

Blend of snow + dirt.

Words formed from snirt

Questions about snirt

What does snirt mean?
Snirt means to give a suppressed laugh or sharp intake of breath.
How do you use snirt in a sentence?
The Whaup grew very red in the face, and ‘snirted’ with laughter."
What part of speech is snirt?
Snirt can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce snirt?
Snirt is pronounced /snɜː(ɹ)t/.
What is the past tense of snirt?
The past tense of snirt is snirted.

Words near snirt in the dictionary

  1. snippy snips
  2. snips
  3. snipsnapsnorum
  4. snipt
  5. snipy
  6. snirt
  7. snirted
  8. snirting
  9. snirtle
  10. snirtled
  11. snirtles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: snirt (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-snirt.wav.

Cite this entry: “snirt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/snirt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.