snoop

[ snoop ]

/ snup /

Informal.

verb (used without object)

to prowl or pry; go about in a sneaking, prying way.

noun

an act or instance of snooping.

a person who snoops.

a private detective.

Nearby words

snog, snollygoster, snood, snook, snooker, snoop, snooper, snooperscope, snoopy, snoose, snoot

Origin of snoop

1825–35, Americanism; < Dutch snoepen to take and eat food on the sly

Related forms

snoop·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for snooped

Fred told about he an' Gus campin' by the river, an' I snooped up that way.
Down the Slope|James Otis
The workmen who had been engaged for work at the Grange had been snooped for work at the Hall.
The Hall and the Grange|Archibald Marshall
We snooped all around the trunk room and rummaged in every box big enough to hold a dwarf.
Winnie Childs|C. N. Williamson
Of the five tapes they now knew had been snooped, three would be useless to the enemy.
The Defiant Agents|Andre Alice Norton

Dozens of stoop-shouldered laboratory men would have prodded and snooped and asked for long, written accounts.
Astounding Stories, June, 1931|Various

British Dictionary definitions for snooped

snoop

/ (snuːp) informal /

verb

(intr; often foll by about or around) to pry into the private business of others

noun

a person who pries into the business of others

an act or instance of snooping

Derived Forms

snoopy, adjective

Word Origin for snoop

C19: from Dutch snoepen to eat furtively

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