snoop
Americanverb (used without object)
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snoops,
present (3rd person singular)
-
snooped,
past participle, past
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snooping
present participle
noun
-
snoops
plural
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an act or instance of snooping.
-
a person who snoops.
-
a private detective.
verb
noun
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a person who pries into the business of others
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an act or instance of snooping
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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snoopsimple
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snoopssimple
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have snoopedperfect
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has snoopedperfect
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am snoopingprogressive
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are snoopingprogressive
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is snoopingprogressive
-
have been snoopingperfect progressive
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has been snoopingperfect progressive
Past
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snoopedsimple
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had snoopedperfect
-
was snoopingprogressive
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were snoopingprogressive
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had been snoopingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of snoop
1825–35, < Dutch snoepen to take and eat food on the sly
Explanation
When you snoop, you poke around in someone else's business. A teenager might snoop in her sister's room, looking for her diary. You snoop when you rustle through someone's garbage looking for love letters, and if you spy on your neighbor through the curtains, you also snoop. In fact, if you spend enough time doing this, you'll be called a snoop — a sneaky busybody. The earliest meaning of snoop, "to go around in a prying manner," comes from the Dutch word snoepen, "to pry."
Vocabulary lists containing snoop
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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:
While co-COO at the bank, Bisignano directed staff to snoop on rival executives, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
E2EE has been hailed by privacy experts as the best way to protect conversations from hackers, corporations and even repressive authorities trying to snoop on users.
From BBC ● Mar. 3, 2026
Camryn Smith and her daughter showed up to snoop around for the deals at the Americana at Brand in Glendale early Friday morning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 28, 2025
One member warned that state officials would snoop around their rural properties to tell owners what to do.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2025
“Stop looking like that. We’ve lost the snoop!’
From "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funke
Like most VPN users, Canadians use VPNs for safer torrenting, streaming foreign and local content while abroad, protecting their data on public networks, and, increasingly, to keep corporate and government snoops away from their data.
From Salon ● Mar. 11, 2026
Yet the very value proposition of VPNs rests on an internet rife with restrictions and snoops.
From Slate ● Jan. 10, 2025
Mr. Chew disputed that his app snoops on Americans.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 23, 2023
She snoops to conquer in “Harriet the Spy,” a new animated series based on the classic children’s novel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2021
Julia often snoops in my room, but she's never discovered this hiding place.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
For eight years they snooped on 182 nests, checking them every few days during the breeding season.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 1, 2023
Postal Service in its crosshairs for an investigation of allegations that postal inspectors snooped on Americans via their social media accounts and online activity.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 6, 2022
The reporters who snooped on the weekend’s wedding via binoculars might have had a better view of what they were covering.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 21, 2022
The authors speculate it was perhaps high-altitude reconnaissance planes flying at 6 miles high that often snooped over Benghazi.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 31, 2022
As the Object dressed, I snooped around the bedroom.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
An ATM con that involves some snooping, some acting and some sleight-of-hand is being carried out across Southern California, police say.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026
You are likely to connect to public Wi-Fi in airports, hotels and cafes, and encrypted connections are crucial for protecting personal data and preventing snooping.
From Salon ● Nov. 30, 2025
Isn’t the whole uproar over Mr. Smith’s snooping on senators’ phone records a “tempest and teapot” given he had to follow rules?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
Sometimes animal activists come snooping around, Mark said: “We do things differently, and some people don’t understand.”
From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2024
Looking at a photo doesn’t feel quite as much like I’ve been snooping into her personal business.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
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.
