snivels

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

   Synonyms:

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

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