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Sneak sb. World English Historical Dictionary

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Sneak sb. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1919, rev. 2025. Sneak sb. Also 7 sneake. [app. f. SNEAK v.]

1   By earlier writers used as a suggestive personal name:—

2 1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 12. See if thou canst finde out Sneakes Noyse.

3 1633.  B. Jonson, Tale of Tub, V. viii. Was she … wench to that Sneake-Iohn?

4   1.  a. A sneaking, mean-spirited, paltry or despicable person; one who acts in a shifty, shabby or underhand manner.

5   Jerry Sneak: see JERRY sb. 6.

6   a. 1643.  W. Cartwright, Ordinary, IV. v. (1651), 75. I’l suffer no such sneaks As you t’ offend this way.

7 1668.  Pepys, Diary, 8 March. When all is done, he is a sneake; who owns his owing me £10 … and yet cannot provide to pay me.

8 1677.  W. Hughes, Man of Sin, II. x. 159. The Devil … being baffled, packs away, like a silly Sneak as he was.

9   1840.  Thackeray, Shabby-genteel Story, iii. We call him tuft-hunter, lickspittle, sneak. Ibid. (1848), Van. Fair, v. The sneak of an usher jeered at him no longer.

10 1848.  B. D. Walsh, trans. Aristophanes’ Knights, II. iii. I knew not … that you had been so long … a sneak and a shuffler.

11 1874.  L. Stephen, Hours in Library (1892), II. v. 174. A penitent is generally a bit of a sneak.

12   b.  One who robs or steals in a sneaking manner, or who enters places clandestinely for that purpose. (See also Area-sneak s.v. AREA 2 b.)

13 1785.  Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Sneak, a pilferer.

14 1839.  Slang Dict., 34. Sneaks—boys who creep into houses, down areas, or into shops, &c. to enter the premises.

15 1902.  Westm. Gaz., 30 June, 2/3. The genuine poacher—the real article we mean, not the commercial midnight game sneak.

16   2.  Cant. a. The act or practice of stealing in unperceived in order to rob; a robbery effected in this manner. Usu. in phr. upon the sneak.

17 a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Ken-miller, ’Tis a bob Ken, Brush upon the Sneak, ’tis a good House, go in if you will but Tread softly.

18 1812.  J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v. Gammon, A thief detected in a house which he has entered, upon the sneak, for the purpose of robbing it. Ibid., Morning-sneak, going out early to rob private houses or shops by slipping in at the door unperceived [etc.].

19   b.  The act of stealing away or running off in a sneaking manner.

20 1812.  J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v., One or more prisoners having escaped … by stealth, without … alarming their keepers, are said to have … given it to ’em upon the sneak.

21 1901.  S. H. Lucas, in Wide World Mag., VI. 478/1. Geronimo and his bloodthirsty cut-throats had ‘made a sneak,’ that is, left their reservation and were on the war-path.

22   3.  Cricket. A ball bowled so as to roll along the ground; a daisy-cutter.

23 1862.  J. Pycroft, Cricket Tutor, 52. Sneaks jump about and twist with the ground. Ibid. (1886), Oxford Mem., II. 93. Once, when good bowling was unsuccessful, they put in Tailor Humphreys to bowl twisting sneaks.

24 1899.  Lubbock, Mem. Eton, xviii. 278. A long hop to leg would have been a more suitable ball than a straight sneak.

25   4.  slang. A soft-soled, noiseless slipper or shoe.

26 1883.  Greenwood, Strange Company (ed. 2), 321. ‘Sneaks’ … are shoes with canvas tops and indiarubber soles.

27 1904.  A. Griffiths, 50 Yrs. Public Service, xiv. 204. His footsteps were … deadened by the ‘sneaks,’ or cloth slippers, worn to conceal his whereabouts.

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