snivel
Americanverb (used without object)
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to weep or cry with sniffling.
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to affect a tearful state; whine.
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to run at the nose; have a runny nose.
She sniveled from the cold.
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to draw up mucus audibly through the nose.
Stop sniveling and use your handkerchief.
verb (used with object)
noun
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weak, whining, or pretended weeping.
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a light sniffle, as in weeping.
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a hypocritical show of feeling.
a sentimental snivel.
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mucus running from the nose.
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(the) snivels, a sniveling condition; a slight cold; the sniffles.
verb
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(intr) to sniffle as a sign of distress, esp contemptibly
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to utter (something) tearfully; whine
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(intr) to have a runny nose
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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snivelsimple
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snivelssimple
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have sniveledperfect
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have snivelledperfect
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has sniveledperfect
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has snivelledperfect
-
am snivelingprogressive
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am snivellingprogressive
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are snivelingprogressive
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are snivellingprogressive
-
is snivelingprogressive
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is snivellingprogressive
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have been snivelingperfect progressive
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have been snivellingperfect progressive
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has been snivelingperfect progressive
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has been snivellingperfect progressive
Past
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sniveledsimple
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snivelledsimple
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had sniveledperfect
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had snivelledperfect
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was snivelingprogressive
-
was snivellingprogressive
-
were snivelingprogressive
-
were snivellingprogressive
-
had been snivelingperfect progressive
-
had been snivellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of snivel
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English snyvele; compare Old English snyflung “sniveling,” derivative of snofl “mucus”; cognate with Low German snüfeln
Explanation
Sometimes, when you really want something, you might resort to whining and blubbering to get it — in other words, you'll snivel. It's never pretty, so try to keep your dignity, and don't snivel! If you want a real picture of the verb snivel, consider that the meaning of the assumed Old English word snyflan meant "to run at the nose, to sniffle." Even worse, that was derived from snofl, or "mucus." Pretty picture, eh? The word came to mean "be tearful," and it suggested someone who was weak or nasty. Today it is often used in its adjective form, sniveling, followed by a contemptuous noun like "coward."
Vocabulary lists containing snivel
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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"Of Mice and Men"
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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:
And I whine a little bit and moan and snivel, and that works.
From New York Times ● Jun. 28, 2021
Deny your partner a Facebook or Twitter account if you want, but don't snivel when people are swirling their fingers round their ears at talk of your name.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 8, 2011
It is a question of audience psychology, of knowing what will make the playgoing mass guffaw, snivel, clap its hands.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Yorkshire Post declared: "Drivel and snivel, in days of challenge and strain, may almost be classed as a minor form of Fifth Column activity."
From Time Magazine Archive
I snivel and sniff and give a weak nod.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
Zachary Quinto snivels in prime form as the insecure son of Niagara, and Pearce’s screenplay saves some of its sharpest stuff for their less-than-idyllic relationship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2018
Yet another former South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, was described with “sweats, snivels and tears all over his face.”
From The New Yorker ● May 14, 2017
Bruno becomes more interesting, she grows less so, and still she snivels at center stage, whining about her bad luck and mistreatment.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2015
The South that simpers, storms and snivels in these pages moves along a sort of up-to-date Tobacco Road, paved right into town.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then they lay quiet, panting, listening to Robert's frightened snivels.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
"You know what, I, I, I, find that ludicrous. But if it's the case, maybe you'll win a Pulitzer for that," he sniveled.
From Salon ● May 9, 2022
In a surprisingly involved moment, the character cowered and sniveled as the desire for vengeance coursed through me.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2010
He sniveled: "S'elp me, Hi honly done it to sive a few bob t'buy warm clothes for me wife an' child!"
From Time Magazine Archive
“Sorry I gave you a hard time this morning,” I sniveled.
From "Fourth Grade Rats" by Jerry Spinelli
He sniveled, crying in a way that hadn’t been acceptable since he was a real little kid.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
"I didn't realise what I'd done," Tabloid Wayne snivelled to shock Richard Keys and jock Andy Gray in reference to that post-West Ham swearing ballyhoo that folks keep banging on about.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 13, 2011
He snivelled and his lips moved with my name.
From Fantazius Mallare A Mysterious Oath by Smith, Wallace
“Please, sir, I ain’t a-doing nothink,” snivelled the lad, screwing his knuckles into his eyes, as if preparing to cry, each word being sandwiched between a sob and a sniff.
From Bob Strong's Holidays Adrift in the Channel by Greene, John B.
At first I only snivelled, but surrendered myself after a few successful ventures, to a loud despairing roar.
From Explorers of the Dawn by Morley, Christopher
Pip's head slunk down deeper yet between his shoulders at that, and he snivelled worse than ever.
From Ben Pepper by Sidney, Margaret
It would be easier to believe if he hadn’t littered every song with claims that his enemies were omnipresent and all-powerful, while also being sniveling dweebs.
From Salon ● May 21, 2026
Um, it might be the last debate before the Iowa caucuses — it is worth your time, even if you just stoop to name-calling like, “begone you sniveling weasel.”
From Washington Times ● Dec. 6, 2023
Albee caricatures the foppishly professorial Fam as sniveling, ingratiating and insincere.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2022
Its “sounds,” she writes, are those “of the busying and tidying of the quietly controlling. The sniveling and whimpering of the long overlooked, the caterwaul of the brokenhearted.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2020
My face twists, and before I know it I’m sniveling like a child.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
Now of course I wasn't really comparing myself – a snivelling worm of a television critic – to Mary Berry, star of television and Queen of the Victoria Sponge.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 30, 2013
It would be hard for Bob to see through that façade to the shy, mousy-haired, snivelling idiot she’d been at fourteen.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 12, 2011
The screen faded to black, ending in silence, no titles and a lot of viewers like me offering to make the post-Corrie cuppa and snivelling by themselves in the kitchen.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 3, 2010
The sullen, steel-grey sky seems to be permanently snivelling sleet.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2010
But to himself he said when he had let the lad go snivelling home, “We must get back to the land.”
From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
