Word.ws English Dictionary

snivelled

snivelled is the simple past and past participle of snivel.

Meaning of snivel

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)

  1. (intransitive) 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)
    Synonyms:
    sniffle
  2. (derogatory, intransitive) 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
  3. (derogatory, transitive) 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...

See all 5 meanings of snivel

Adjective

snivelled (not comparable)

  1. Covered or dripping with nasal mucus; snotty.
    • And to mend these slouenly maners, [they] be not ashamed, many tymes with these filthy napkyns, to wype awaye the sweat that trickleth and falleth downe their browes, their face and their necke (they be such greedy guts in their feeding) and otherwhile to, (when it comes vppon them) spare not to...1576, Robert Peterson, transl., Galateo of Maister Iohn Della Casa, London: Raufe Newbery, page 13
    • Nor imitate with Socrates
      to wipe thy snivelled nose
      Upon thy cap, as he would doe,
      nor yet upon thy clothes.1619, Richard Weste, The Booke of Demeanor, London: Nathaniel Butter, page 8

Questions about snivelled

What does snivelled mean?
Snivelled means covered or dripping with nasal mucus; snotty.
What is snivelled the simple past and past participle of?
Snivelled is the simple past and past participle of snivel.
What part of speech is snivelled?
Snivelled is an adjective.

Words near snivelled in the dictionary

  1. snivelers
  2. snivelin'
  3. sniveling
  4. snivelingly
  5. snivelings
  6. snivelled
  7. sniveller
  8. snivellers
  9. snivelling
  10. snivellingly
  11. snivellings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: snivelled (page history and authors); snivel (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: “snivelled.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/snivelled. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.