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snib

American  
[snib] / snɪb /

noun

  1. a bolt, catch, lock, or fastening on a door or window.

  2. the catch that holds the bolt on a lock.


verb (used with object)

snibbed, snibbing
  1. to bolt or fasten (a door or window).

snib British  
/ snɪb /

noun

  1. the bolt or fastening of a door, window, etc

"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 bolt or fasten (a door)

"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

Etymology

Origin of snib

First recorded in 1800–10; of uncertain origin; perhaps from Low German snibbe ( German Schnippe ), Swedish snibb “beak, point”


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:

Tommy said nothing, but—but one of the school-windows was without a snib, and next morning when the dominie reached his desk he was surprised to find on it a little cotton glove.

From Sentimental Tommy The Story of His Boyhood by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie

He afterwards passed a string through the joining of the upper and lower windows, and managed to shut the snib.

From The Green Mummy by Fergus Hume

The snib was an old one, and he yanked a piece of string round it, and passed the string through the crack between the upper and lower sash of the window.

From The Green Mummy by Fergus Hume

"Did Sir Reginald ever forget to snib the windows, supposing one happened to be open?"

From Simon by J. Storer (Joseph Storer) Clouston

Monica closed it gently down, and fastened the snib.

From Beyond the City by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

And it's impossible the man can have opened a snibbed windie and got in, with some one sitting in the room, and no alarm given.

From Simon by J. Storer (Joseph Storer) Clouston

Shut, sir; and the most extraordinary thing was that it was snibbed too!

From Simon by J. Storer (Joseph Storer) Clouston

“Manny’s the toime Oi’ve snibbed a latch loike that in Oireland,” she said, and she smiled so hard that her very wrinkles seemed to twinkle.

From Maida's Little Shop by Inez Haynes Gillmore

And schewed welles of watres ware, And groundes of ertheli world unhiled are, For thi snibbing, Laverd myne; For onesprute of gast of wreth thine.

From English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day by Walter W. (Walter William) Skeat

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