snivel
/ˈsnɪvəl/
snivel verb: to breathe heavily through the nose while it is congested with nasal mucus.
Verb
snivel (third-person singular simple present snivels, present participle (US) sniveling or (UK) snivelling, simple past and past participle (US) sniveled or (UK) snivelled)
- To breathe heavily through the nose while it is congested with nasal mucus.
- With stinking breath, swart-cheeks, and hanging chaps;
With wrinkled neck; and stooping as she goes,
With driveling mouth, and with a sniveling nose.1611, Josuah Sylvester (translator), Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes, London, Book 4, Week 2, Day 4, p. 623, […] a Hagg, a Fury by my side; With hollow, yellow teeth (or none perhaps) - […] in severe frosty weather, snivelling and tears are produced by the coldness and dryness of the air.1794, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, London: J. Johnson, Volume 1, Section 16, Subsection 2, p. 149
- Synonyms:
- sniffle
- With stinking breath, swart-cheeks, and hanging chaps;
- To cry while sniffling; to whine or complain while crying.
- Let things come to the Worst; when we have Overturned the Government;—Polluted the very Altar, with our MASTERS BLOOD—Cheated the Publick, &c. ’Tis but to Whine and Snivel to the People; tell them we were mis-led, by Cardinall Appetites;1660, Roger L’Estrange, “No Fool to the Old Fool”, in A Short View of Some Remarkable Transactions, London: Henry Brome, page 95
- […] after a good deal of sniveling and sobbing, she owned, that so far from being an heiress of a great fortune, she was no other than a common woman of the town, who had decoyed me into matrimony […]1748, Tobias Smollett, chapter 61, in The Adventures of Roderick Random, volume 2, London: J. Osborn, page 267
- To say (something) while sniffling or crying.
- This bye dialogue prevented my hearing what passed between the prisoner and Captain Thornton, but I heard the former snivel out, in a very subdued tone, “And ye’ll ask her to gang nae farther than just to shew ye where the MacGregor is?—Ohon! ohon!”1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Rob Roy. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst...
- I, the Socman, am shorn of my lands that you may snivel Latin and eat bread for which you never did hand’s turn.1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 9, in The White Company
Noun
snivel (plural snivels)
- The act of snivelling.
- So Parson Hugh, with Groan and Snivel
Made half his Congregation drivel,1692, John Dennis, “The Triumvirate: or, The Battle”, in Poems in Burlesque, London, page 2 - […] after a bit of a snivel, for you know I am a woman in these matters, I had her treated with all decency, and then committed her to Davy Jones’s locker; and for want of a chaplain, I said the burial service myself […]1792, Charles Dibdin, chapter 5, in Hannah Hewit: or, The Female Crusoe, volume 1, London, page 50
- So Parson Hugh, with Groan and Snivel
- Nasal mucus; snot.
- [A]nd if thou entreate me not the fayrer, (hope of amendment preventeth many ruines) truſt me, I will batter thy carrion to dirt, whence thou camſt, and ſquiſe thy braine to ſnivell whereof it was curdled; […]1593, Gabriell Haruey [i.e., Gabriel Harvey], Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. A Preparative to Certaine Larger Discourses, Intituled Nashes S. Fame, London: […] Iohn Wolfe...
- He did let his snot and snivel fall in his pottage […]1653, Thomas Urquhart, transl., The First Book of the Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, London: Richard Baddeley, Book 1, Chapter 11, p. 53
snivel meaning in Malayalam, Kannada and Punjabi
snivel in Malayalam
- whimper, sniffle, snuffle
- മൂക്കുചീറ്റക്കുുകയും കരയുകയും ചെയ്യുക, മൂക്കുകൊണ്ടുസംസാരിക്കുക, ചിണുങ്ങുക, മൂക്കൊലിപ്പിക്കുക, കണ്ണും മൂക്കും ഒലിപ്പിക്കുക, മൂക്കുചീറ്റുക
- mutter, complain, grumble
- പരാതിപ്പെടുക, ആവലാതിപ്പെടുക, പിറുപിറുക്കുക, അസ്പഷ്ടമായി പറയുക, പൊറുപൊറുക്കുക, മുറുമുറുക്കുക
snivel in Kannada
- ತೋರಿಕೆಗೆ ಗೋಳಿಡು, ತೋರಿಕೆಗೆ ಸೊರಗುಟ್ಟು, ಗೋಳುಗರೆ, ಗೊಣಗು, ಕಣ್ಣೀರು ಸುರಿಸು, ಪಶ್ಚಾತ್ತಾಪವನ್ನು ನಟಿಸು
snivel in Punjabi
- snivel
- ਨੱਕ nakka, نک nakk
Examples of snivel in a sentence
- […] he began to snivel, and wherever he tried to hide he was found out by the terrific explosions of his suppressed sneezes.1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, chapter 9, in The Hobbit, New York: Random House, published 1982, page 187:
- I’d snivel psalms to oblige the padre, but I can’t stick the way these damned native Christians come shoving into our church.’1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], “Chapter 2”, in Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers...
- […] he ran his sleeve under his nose to stop the snivel.1952, Flannery O’Connor, chapter 3, in Wise Blood, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, published 1962, page 59:
Synonyms of snivel
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of snivel
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | snivels |
| present participle US | sniveling |
| present participle UK | snivelling |
| past participle US | sniveled |
| past US | sniveled |
| past participle UK | snivelled |
| past UK | snivelled |
| Noun | |
| plural | snivels |
Origin of snivel
From Middle English snivelen, snevelen, snyvelen, snuvelen, from Old English *snyflan (attested in the verbal noun snyflung (“mucus”)), from Proto-West Germanic *snuflijan, related to Old English snofl (“mucus”), ultimately from the root of snout. Akin to sniff, snuff. Compare sniffle. Cognate with Middle Low German snuffelen, snüffelen (“to sniff, smell”), Danish snøvle (“to sniffle, snivel”), Norwegian Nynorsk snuvla (“to sniffle, snivel”), Swedish snövla (“to sniffle, snivel”). Compare typologically Russian сопе́ть (sopétʹ), сопля́ (sopljá) akinness.
Words formed from snivel
Words that rhyme with snivel
Questions about snivel
- What does snivel mean?
- Snivel means to breathe heavily through the nose while it is congested with nasal mucus.
- What is snivel in Malayalam?
- Snivel in Malayalam is മൂക്കുചീറ്റക്കുുകയും കരയുകയും ചെയ്യുക, മൂക്കുകൊണ്ടുസംസാരിക്കുക, ചിണുങ്ങുക. See Snivel meaning in Malayalam.
- How do you use snivel in a sentence?
- […] he began to snivel, and wherever he tried to hide he was found out by the terrific explosions of his suppressed sneezes.
- What part of speech is snivel?
- Snivel can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce snivel?
- Snivel is pronounced /ˈsnɪvəl/.
- What is the past tense of snivel?
- The past tense of snivel is sniveled.
Words near snivel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: snivel (page history and authors); snivel (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); snivel (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); نک (Punjabi) (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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Cite this entry: “snivel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/snivel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.