snivel

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   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.
   • 1794, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, London: J. Johnson, Volume 1, Section 16, Subsection 2, p. 149, […] in severe frosty weather, snivelling and tears are produced by the coldness and dryness of the air.
   • […] he began to snivel, and wherever he tried to hide he was found out by the terrific explosions of his suppressed sneezes.
2. 2

   To cry while sniffling

   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;
   • […] 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 […]
   • I never snivel over trifles like that.
3. 3

   To say (something) while sniffling or crying.

   • I, the Socman, am shorn of my lands that you may snivel Latin and eat bread for which you never did hand’s turn.
   • ‘Oh, hell! I’d snivel psalms to oblige the padre, but I can’t stick the way these damned native Christians come shoving into our church.’
4. ›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      The act of snivelling.

      • So Parson Hugh, with Groan and Snivel Made half his Congregation drivel,
      • […] 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 […]
      • Order! No snivel!—no sentiment!—no regret! I will endure only sense and resolution.
   2. 5

      Nasal mucus

      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; […]
      • He did let his snot and snivel fall in his pottage […]
      • 1770, Thomas Bridges, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, London: S. Hooper, 3rd edition, Volume 2, Book 8, p. 44, In streams the blood and snivel flows From many a Grecian’s snotty nose,

The neighborhood

• neighborsniffle
• neighborsnuffle