snivel
/ˈsnɪvəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.40 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The act of snivelling.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
From Middle English snivelen, snevelen, snyvelen, snuvelen, from Old English *snyflan (attested in the verbal noun snyflung (“mucus”)), from Proto-West Germanic *snuflijan, related to Old English snofl (“mucus”), ultimately from the root of snout. Akin to sniff, snuff. Compare sniffle. Cognate with Middle Low German snuffelen, snüffelen (“to sniff, smell”), Danish snøvle (“to sniffle, snivel”), Norwegian Nynorsk snuvla (“to sniffle, snivel”), Swedish snövla (“to sniffle, snivel”). Compare typologically Russian сопе́ть (sopétʹ), сопля́ (sopljá) akinness.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: snivelen, *snyflan, *snuflijan