snark1
[snahrk]
- a mysterious, imaginary animal.
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Origin of snark1
First recorded in 1876; coined by Lewis Carroll in his poem The Hunting of the Snark
snark2
[snahrk]Slang.
- to be critical in a rude or sarcastic way: to snark about the neighbors.
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- rude or sarcastic criticism.
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Origin of snark2
1910–15; dial. snark ‘to nag, find fault with’; apparently identical with snark, snork ‘to snort, snore’, probably < Dutch, Low German snorken ‘to snore’
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for snark
Contemporary Examples
But critiques and snark have no place, watching re-runs late at night.
Jimmy Fallon's uncontainable glee is a welcome respite from late night's usual smarm and snark, but that's Fallon's thing.
For such searing, challenging dreams, we have only snark or smarm.
That should knock the snark out of the precocious six-year old who wonders exactly how Santa knows all.
Joseph's snark was not confined to his Obama administration colleagues.
Historical Examples
By the thirtieth time it has become a word like "snark" or "pobble."
Alarms and DiscursionsG. K. Chesterton
"Well, I'm going to hunt up that lawyer, Snark," affirmed Drake finally.
Garrison's FinishW. B. M. Ferguson
It's excessively awkward to mention it now,With the Snark, so to speak, at the door!
The Best Nonsense VersesVarious
Don't call him the banker; it reminds me of The Hunting of the Snark.
The Twelfth HourAda Leverson
As originally planned, the Snark was to be forty feet long on the water-line.
The Cruise of the SnarkJack London
Word Origin and History for snark
n.
imaginary animal, coined 1876 by Lewis Carroll in "The Hunting of the Snark." In 1950s, name of a type of U.S. cruise missile and in 1980s of a type of sailboat. Meaning "caustic, opinionated, critical rhetoric" is from c.2002 (see snarky) and not directly related, if at all.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper