/sniːp/, /snip/
OriginThe verb is a variant of snape, from Middle English snaipen (“to injure; of sleet or snow: to nip; to criticize, rebuke, revile”) [and other forms], from Old Norse sneypa (“to disgrace, dishonour; to outrage”), from Proto-Germanic *snaupijaną, from Proto-Germanic *snūpaną, *snūbaną (“to cut, snap”); further origin unknown.
The noun is derived from the verb.
- British, archaic, dialectal, transitiveTo bite, nip, or pinch (someone or something).
- British, also, archaic, dialectal, figurativelyTo check or abruptly reprove (someone); to chide, to rebuke, to reprimand.
“Nay, I am gone. I'm a man quickly sneaped.”
“That vvee doe enough hate our corruptions, vvhen (at our ſharpeſt) vve doe but gently ſneape them, […]”
“But life that's here, / VVhen into it the ſoul doth cloſely vvind, / Is often ſneep'd by anguiſh and by fear, / VVith vexing pain and range that ſhe no'te eaſly bear.”
- British, archaic, dialectal, informal, transitiveTo offend (someone); to put (someone's) nose out of joint.
“Some days after he, in a civil manner, sent a captain with them and other soldiers to Owthorpe, to inquire into their misdemeanours before their faces; which being confirmed to him, and he beginning t”
“And moreover she was convinced that her mother, secretly very flattered and delighted by the visit, was adopting a derisive attitude in order to 'show off' before her daughter. Parents are thus ingenu”
“As I have often had causee to remark before, my hon. Friend, though appearing to be a hard-boiled member of the Committee is in fact very tender, and, as we say in north Staffordshire, easily sneaped ”
- British, archaic, dialectal, obsolete, transitiveA rebuke; a reprimand.
“My Lord I will not vndergoe this ſnepe vvithout reply, […]”
Formssneaps(present, singular, third-person) · sneaping(participle, present) · sneaped(participle, past) · sneaped(past) · sneep(alternative) · snipe(alternative) · sneaps(plural)
Source: Wiktionary