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Synonyms

snick

American  
[snik] / snɪk /

verb (used with object)

  • snicks,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • snicked,
    past participle,  past
  • snicking
    present participle
  1. to cut, snip, or nick.

  2. to strike sharply.

    He snicked the ball with his cue.

  3. to snap or click (a gun, trigger, etc.).


verb (used without object)

  • snicks,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • snicked,
    past participle,  past
  • snicking
    present participle
  1. to click.

noun

  1. a small cut; nick.

  2. a click.

  3. Cricket.

    1. a glancing blow given to the ball.

    2. the ball so hit.

snick British  
/ snɪk /

noun

  1. a small cut; notch

  2. a knot in thread, etc

  3. cricket

    1. a glancing blow off the edge of the bat

    2. the ball so hit

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to cut a small corner or notch in (material, etc)

  2. cricket to hit (the ball) with a snick

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future


Etymology

Origin of snick

1550–60; origin uncertain; compare Scots sneck to cut (off ), Old Norse snikka to whittle


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Haseeb Hameed's thin snick, Jack Leach bowled shouldering arms, Jonny Bairstow pinned lbw, Joe Root's edged drive, Mark Wood taken in the follow-through and Ollie Robinson snaffled at third slip.

From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2025

It crunches around in the glass, and you can hear its eyes snick in their sockets as it anxiously looks all around your small apartment.

From Slate ● May 30, 2020

Inside 10 overs Bancroft and Usman Khawaja were there as well, though in Khawaja’s case the third umpire had to be summoned to verify the snick.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 1, 2019

It closes with a satisfying snick and has a springiness to it when you open it up.

From The Verge ● Apr. 15, 2019

The snick of the tongue of the catch finding its place in the door frame releases me.

From "Wintergirls" by Laurie Halse Anderson

Manly Mando thwacks and snicks his way through all opponents while scarcely breaking a sweat.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026

They're fluffy and cakey without being too fluffy or too cakey like some snicks.

From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2022

I love the way a makeup compact snicks shut or how a luxury car door closes with a kind of airlock seal or — yes — how a classic Razr flips open.

From The Verge ● Feb. 13, 2020

The sixth ball snicks off his edge through third slip, and Cook whips his head around in panic to see if he has been spared.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 9, 2010

Jabez ranged up and down till he found a thinner place, and with clean snicks of the handbill revealed the original face of the fence.

From A Diversity of Creatures by Rudyard Kipling

Root snicked it and Morris, who took a blinder earlier to dismiss Cook, couldn’t hang on to a very sharp chance as he dived to his left.

From The Guardian ● Jan. 2, 2016

The stone slipped on between the two trotting sweepers, snicked the two guard stones away and came to rest plunk in the center.

From Time Magazine Archive

My mother would not agree that she might have been sleepwalking; but she was ready to put the door opening down to the fault of the latch, which certainly snicked very lightly.

From Carnacki, the Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson

The feeding mechanism snicked and the fresh shell clicked as it slid into the breech.

From The World That Couldn't Be by Clifford D. Simak

Then he grew bolder; hit him for a single, and snicked him to the fence for four.

From Mates at Billabong by Mary Grant Bruce

He can show two flacks of opposed allegiance snicking at each other with unsheathed falsehoods, and trace the exact grimace of the loser.

From Time Magazine Archive

She had woken up at night to escape from a familiar, recurrent dream in which policemen approached her with snicking scissors, wanting to hack off her hair.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

Calculations were made how to cut the stuff to advantage, and in due course the heavy scissors were heard snick, snick, snicking all day long.

From Hard Cash by Charles Reade

The shroff was clicking on his abacus, and left off snicking the beads up and down to remark casually that the compradore had gone.

From Civilization Tales of the Orient by Ellen Newbold La Motte

A batsman certainly gets a considerable amount of innocent fun by snicking good fast balls just off his wicket to the ropes, and standing stolidly in front against slow leg-breaks.

From Tales of St. Austin's by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

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