snudge
/snʌd͡ʒ/
snudge verb: to save in a miserly manner; to hoard.
Verb (1)
snudge (third-person singular simple present snudges, present participle snudging, simple past and past participle snudged)
- To save in a miserly manner; to hoard.
- Ill huſbandry trudgeth with vnthrifts about, / good huſbandry ſnudgeth for feare of a dout.1570, Thomas Tusser, “Comparing Good Husband with Vnthrift His Brother, the Better Descerneth the Tone from the Tother”, in A Hundrethe Good Pointes of Husbandrie, Lately Maried vnto a Hundrethe Good...
- Manger ſon avoine en ſon ſac. To ſnudge it; or churliſhly to eat all his meat all alone; (from Moyles [mules], vvho haue bags of prouender hung ſo cloſe to their noſes, that none but themſelues can come at it.)1611, Randle Cotgrave, compiler, “Avoine”, in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, signature H, recto, column 2
- Also followed by along: to walk with one's head down; to walk with a stoop.
- [T]o Snudge along, to go like an old Snudge, or like one vvhoſe Head is full of buſineſs, […][1687–1688, Guy Miege, “to Snudge along”, in The Great French Dictionary. […], London: […] J. Redmayne, for Tho[mas] Basset, […], →OCLC, signature Qqq3, verso, column 1
Noun
snudge (plural snudges)
- A greedy, stingy person; a miser.
- And thus your huſbandrye me thincke, is more like the life of a couetous ſnudge that ofte very euill preues, then the labour of a good huſbãde [husbande] that knoweth well what he doth.1545, Roger Ascham, “The First Booke”, in Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions of Shooting […], [new] edition, London: […] Thomas Marshe, published 1571, →OCLC, folio 2, recto
- Hiſtories are no ſnudges in matters of note: […]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...
- A dishonest and sneaky person.
- And in that ſlepe (me thought) I heard the tunes / Of ſullen paſſions apt for Funerals, / And ſaw my Fathers liueleſſe body borne / By Satyres: O I feare that deitie / Hath ſtolne him hence, that Snudge his deſtinie.1599 November–December (date written), Thomas Dekker, The Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus. […], London: […] S. S. for William Aspley, […], published 1600, →OCLC, signature [E4], recto
- […] I 'll lay Five Pounds to a Hazelnut, the foul Thief has the very Looks of Gripe-me-now. […] [T]hou 'rt the right; for if we but examin that treacherous Review's ill-favour'd Phiz, we find that the filthy Snudge is yet more mischievous and ignorant than these ignorant Wretches here; […]1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], “How Pantagruel Came to the Island of the Apedefers, or Ignoramus’s, with Long Claws, and...
Verb (2)
snudge (third-person singular simple present snudges, present participle snudging, simple past and past participle snudged)
- To lie quiet and snug; to nestle, to snuggle.
- to snudge over a fire
- Novv he vvill fight it out, and to the vvarres; / Novv eat his bread in peace, / And ſnudge in quiet: novv he ſcorns increaſe; / Novv all day ſpares.[1633], George Herbert, “Giddinesse”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold...
Forms of snudge
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | snudges |
| present participle | snudging |
| past participle | snudged |
| past | snudged |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | snudgest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | snudgedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | snudgeth |
| Noun | |
| plural | snudges |
Origin of snudge
The origin of the verb is unknown. The noun is possibly derived from the verb.
Origin unknown, possibly related to snug.
Words formed from snudge
- snudging
- snidge
- snudgery
Words that rhyme with snudge
8 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about snudge
- What does snudge mean?
- Snudge means to save in a miserly manner; to hoard.
- What part of speech is snudge?
- Snudge can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce snudge?
- Snudge is pronounced /snʌd͡ʒ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of snudge?
- The past tense of snudge is snudged.
Words near snudge in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: snudge (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-snudge.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-snudge.wav.
Cite this entry: “snudge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/snudge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.