snivelling

snivelling is the present participle and gerund 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)

(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
(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
Synonyms:

beef, bellyache, bemoan, bitch, bleat, whimper, carp, chunter, complain, crab
(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

Noun

snivelling (plural snivellings)

The act of producing a snivel.
- He would also have been exposed to the coughings and shufflings, comings and goings, questions and answers, wailings and slammings, snivellings and sneezings, etc., which figured so prominently in the reference room […]2011, John O'Loughlin, Two Sides of the Same Coin

Adjective

snivelling (comparative more snivelling, superlative most snivelling)

Of someone who whines, cries, or acts weak and unpleasant in an annoying way.

Forms of snivelling

Noun
plural	snivellings
Adjective
comparative	more snivelling
superlative	most snivelling

Questions about snivelling

What does snivelling mean?: Snivelling means the act of producing a snivel.
What is snivelling the present participle and gerund of?: Snivelling is the present participle and gerund of snivel.
What part of speech is snivelling?: Snivelling can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of snivelling?: The plural of snivelling is snivellings.

Words near snivelling in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: snivelling (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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