sneak

American  

[sneek] / snik /

verb (used without object)

• sneaks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sneaked,
  past participle,  past
• snuck,
  past participle,  past
• sneaking
  present participle

1. to go in a stealthy or furtive manner; slink; skulk.

   Synonyms:

   steal

2. to act in a furtive or underhand way.

3. British Informal. to tattle; inform.

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verb (used with object)

• sneaks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sneaked,
  past participle,  past
• snuck,
  past participle,  past
• sneaking
  present participle

1. to move, put, pass, etc., in a stealthy or furtive manner.

   He sneaked the gun into his pocket.

2. to do, take, or enjoy hurriedly or surreptitiously.

   to sneak a cigarette.

noun

• sneaks
  plural

1. a sneaking, underhand, or contemptible person.

2. Informal. a stealthy or furtive departure.

3. British Informal. tattletale; informer.

4. sneaker.

5. Informal. a sneak preview.

6. Cards. the lead of a singleton in a suit other than the trump suit, as in whist.

sneak British  

/ sniːk /

verb

1. (intr; often foll by along, off, in, etc) to move furtively

2. (intr) to behave in a cowardly or underhand manner

3. (tr) to bring, take, or put stealthily

4. informal (intr) to tell tales (esp in schools)

5. informal (tr) to steal

6. informal (intr; foll by off, out, away, etc) to leave unobtrusively

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noun

1. a person who acts in an underhand or cowardly manner, esp as an informer

2. 1. a stealthy act or movement

   2. ( as modifier )

      a sneak attack

3. informal an unobtrusive departure

Usage

First recorded in writing toward the end of the 19th century in the United States, snuck has become in recent decades a standard variant past tense and past participle of the verb sneak : Bored by the lecture, he snuck out the side door. Snuck occurs frequently in fiction and in journalistic writing as well as on radio and television: In the darkness the sloop had snuck around the headland, out of firing range. It is not so common in highly formal or belletristic writing, where sneaked is more likely to occur. Snuck is the only spoken past tense and past participle for many younger and middle-aged persons of all educational levels in the U. S. and Canada. Snuck has occasionally been considered nonstandard, but it is so widely used by professional writers and educated speakers that it can no longer be so regarded.

Synonym Usage

See lurk.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sneakiness
  noun
• sneaky
  adjective
• sneakily
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sneaks
  plural

Participles

• sneaking
  present
• sneaked
  past
• snuck
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sneak
  simple
• sneaks
  simple
• have sneaked
  perfect
• have snuck
  perfect
• has sneaked
  perfect
• has snuck
  perfect
• am sneaking
  progressive
• are sneaking
  progressive
• is sneaking
  progressive
• have been sneaking
  perfect progressive
• has been sneaking
  perfect progressive

Past

• sneaked
  simple
• snuck
  simple
• had sneaked
  perfect
• had snuck
  perfect
• was sneaking
  progressive
• were sneaking
  progressive
• had been sneaking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sneak
  simple
• will have sneaked
  perfect
• will have snuck
  perfect
• will be sneaking
  progressive
• will have been sneaking
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of sneak

1590–1600; variant of Middle English sniken, Old English snīcan “to creep”; cognate with Old Norse snīkja “to hanker after”

Explanation

The word sneak has many shades of meaning, but all involve doing something in a secretive or stealthy way. If you sneak home after midnight, that means you’re quietly creeping into the house so no one will hear you. In addition to moving furtively, sneak can also mean doing something secretly or slipping something in. You might sneak a cookie when no one is looking, or you might sneak your brother into a concert. You could even sneak a glance at that cute guy in your math class — you do it when you think no one will notice. Sneak has a noun form that describes a furtive person — someone who does a lot of sneaking.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sneak sneaks sneaked snuck sneaking

As soon as she started looking at SkinnyTok content, Williams wrote, “the tradwife content began to sneak in” to her algorithm.

From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026

Still, Caltech needed a system to make sure a “handful” of dishonest applicants didn’t sneak by.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

"We were told not to take photos but I managed to sneak one," he said.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

England sneak through - but who had a nightmare start?

From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026

And despite my attempts, I haven’t been able to sneak in another call to Olivia McQuatters.

From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

He explained that he rarely stays in one place for longer than five nights - and sneaks out to go to work.

From BBC ● May 7, 2026

Fires that start below the surface often begin spontaneously, as organic matter decomposes and creates heat, fueled by oxygen that sneaks in through the cracks.

From Barron's ● Apr. 30, 2026

This is important because retirement sneaks up on most people.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 22, 2026

That spot could also go to Joachim Trier, the director and co-writer of “Sentimental Value,” a family drama that sneaks in some sharp satire about the sorry state of filmmaking these days.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 19, 2026

I dug my sneaks into the bark and pulled myself up.

From "Fourth Grade Rats" by Jerry Spinelli

According to the criminal complaint, Truelove sneaked into a restricted area of the Rockefeller Plaza lobby just before 9 a.m. on July 16, following an employee who used an identification card to swipe in.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

But team-mate Olav Kooij did not follow and as the riders hesitated, Waerenskjold sneaked through a gap beside the barriers to launch a counter-attack with 400m remaining.

From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026

Only after a nurse sneaked a phone to Johnson was he able to contact his wife.

From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026

All better: Basil, the fox who sneaked on a ship to New York.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 3, 2026

Had Mom seen all this when she sneaked back to this world to try to rescue the three other kids named Rochester, Emma, and Finn?

From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix

He snuck into the main draw on ranking after going away and winning Challenger matches out of the limelight - just like Katie Swan did.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, placed a series of lucrative trades in the days and immediate hours before his colleagues in the service snuck into Caracas and took Maduro.

From Slate ● Apr. 24, 2026

Infiniti: I snuck onto set when she was working with Lucy, don’t worry.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2026

After Wisconsin missed a layup and the Panthers recovered the rebound, Johnston snuck out on a break and caught the pass.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026

So the people of Hotel Barba waited till no one was watching and snuck into town one at a time.

From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri

The tale of Donald Trump sneaking off Air Force One in a catering truck captured public attention for many reasons.

From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026

Holly is already known to police because she’s in the habit of sneaking into the house where she grew up and sleeping there overnight, to the vexation of the current owners.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026

But neither those measures nor Friday’s sizzling temperatures stopped fans from gathering in hopes of sneaking a peak at their longtime idol and sending Swift their well wishes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026

However, she was stopped in her tracks when her mom asked, “Where are you going miss? Are you sneaking out?”

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 24, 2026

“He is a miserable, sneaking wretch who deserted us as soon as we were attacked.”

From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander

Related Words

• ambush
• crawl
• creep
• evade
• hide
• slink
• slip
• slither
• smuggle
• steal