snivel
- to weep or cry with sniffling.
- to affect a tearful state; whine.
- to run at the nose; have a runny nose: She sniveled from the cold.
- to draw up mucus audibly through the nose: Stop sniveling and use your handkerchief.
- to utter with sniveling or sniffling.
- weak, whining, or pretended weeping.
- a light sniffle, as in weeping.
- a hypocritical show of feeling: a sentimental snivel.
- mucus running from the nose.
- snivels, a sniveling condition; a slight cold; sniffles (usually preceded by the).
Origin of snivel
Related Words for sniveling
gripe, whimper, whine, groan, shine, sob, sniff, blubber, weep, complain, fret, sniffleExamples from the Web for sniveling
Historical Examples of sniveling
Come, come; don't go to sniveling; be a good girl, and mind the main chance.
The ContrastRoyall Tyler
Augustine went off, sobbing and sniveling, dragging her feet in the snow.
L'AssommoirEmile Zola
From sobbing, Miss Winthrop dwindled to sniveling, and there she stopped.
The Wall Street GirlFrederick Orin Bartlett
She did not care about him, so what was she sniveling about and making her nose all red?
The Wall Street GirlFrederick Orin Bartlett
What care have we for monastery bells and sniveling priests!
Vanished Halls and Cathedrals of FranceGeorge Warton Edwards
snivel
- (intr) to sniffle as a sign of distress, esp contemptibly
- to utter (something) tearfully; whine
- (intr) to have a runny nose
- an instance of snivelling
Word Origin for snivel
Word Origin and History for sniveling
snivel
Old English *snyflan "to run at the nose" (cf. snyflung "running of the nose"), related to snofl "nasal mucus;" see snout. Meaning "to be in an (affected) tearful state" is from 1680s. Related: Snivelled; snivelling. As a noun from 14c. Melville coined snivelization (1849). Middle English had contemptuous term snivelard (n.).