Also 7 sneare, 7–8 snear. [prob. of imitative origin. The relation to NFris. (Sylt) sneere to scorn, is not clear.
Apparent examples of snere, snered, and snering occur about 1300 in the E. E. Psalter ii. 4, xxxiv. 16, lxxviii. 4, and lxxix. 7, as renderings of L. irridebit, deriserunt, and derisus; but two of the MSS. have variants swere, swered, swering. The translator was evidently influenced by the OE. glosses bismerað, bismeradon, bismerung, and it is very doubtful whether he was using a word which was really known to him.]
1. intr. Of a horse: To snort. Now dial. † Also trans., to send out with snorts.
1553. Douglas’ Æneid, VII. v. 101. With twa sterne stedis … At thair neis thyrles the fyre fast furth snering out.
1607. Markham, Caval. (1617), VI. 12. If … you doe now and then spirt a little Vinegar into his nostrels,… it will both make him sneare and neese.
1814. in Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 1115. The colt … scampered off sneering, with his tail on his ‘riggin.’
1878. Dickinson, Cumbld. Gloss., s.v., If a horse sneers efter he coughs he’s nut brokken windit.
b. Sc. Of an animal: To make a twitching movement with the nose.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 447. On the extrusion of the calf, the first symptom it shews of life is a few gasps…; and then it opens its eyes, and tries to shake its head, and sneer with its nose.
2. To smile scornfully or contemptuously; to express scorn, derision or disparagement in this way; to speak or write in a manner suggestive or expressive of contempt or disparagement:
a. Const. at a person or thing.
1680. H. More, Apocal. Apoc., 357. The Wits of this age that are ready to snear and flear at any such profession.
1721–2. Atterbury, Lett to Pope, 26 Feb. (J.). I could be content to be a little sneered at in a line or so.
a. 1763. W. King, Polit. & Lit. Anecd. (1819), 20. The French seemed to sneer at this behaviour of the German officers, and looked on them with a kind of contempt.
1814. Scott, Wav., liv. Flora, observing the Lowland ladies sneer at the comparison, produced some reason to show that it was not altogether so absurd.
1858. Max Müller, Chips (1880), III. i. 30. Luther was sneered at because of his little German tracts.
1874. L. Stephen, Hours in Library (1892), I. x. 361. Walpole sheltered himself behind … a pension to sneer at the tragi-comedy of life.
b. Without const.
1735. Pope, Prol. Sat., 202. Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer.
1781. Cowper, Conversat., 182. The fear Lest fops should censure us, and fools should sneer.
1818. Shelley, Rosalind, 655. Men wondered, and some sneered to see One sow what he could never reap.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. III. iii. Philosophedom sneers aloud, as if its Necker already triumphed.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, I. i. 4. If authors sneer, it is the critic’s business to sneer at them for sneering.
fig. 1835. L. Hunt, Poems (1844), 96. Sneereth the trumpet, and stampeth the drum.
† 3. To laugh foolishly or smirkingly; to grin.
1683. Wood, Life, 17 Feb. They … stand silent, while their abbettors sneare and grin. Ibid. (1695), 23 March. With Mr J. Ecc. at the house next the Half-Moon: two snearing and laughing wo[men]: he sneared and laughed with them.
1705. R. Beverley, Virginia, II. xviii. (1722), 121. A Fourth would fondly kiss, and paw his Companions, and snear in their Faces, with a Countenance more antick, than any in a Dutch Droll.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 558. Our … Pilot, who had always something or other to say to make us merry, came sneering to me, and told me [etc.].
b. dial. (See quot.)
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Sneer, to make wry faces, without intention of expressing contempt or insult.
c. Naut. (See quot.)
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v., To ‘make all sneer again’ is to carry canvas to such an extent as to strain the ropes and spars to the utmost.
4. trans. To utter with a sneer or in a sneering tone.
1693. Congreve, Old Bach., I. iv. I confess I have not been sneering fulsome lyes and nauseous flattery.
1864. Tennyson, Voyage, 78. ‘A ship of fools,’ he sneer’d and wept.
1904. A. E. Glover, 1000 Miles of Miracle, x. 126. He sneered some contemptuous word.
5. To speak or write of (a person or thing) with scorn, contempt or disparagement; to deride or decry. Obs. exc. dial.
1706. Reflex. upon Ridicule, 94. You think you are applauded, when People ridicule and sneer you.
1740–2. Richardson, Pamela, III. 41. Wedlock, which used to be very freely sneered by him.
1755. B. Martin, Mag. Arts & Sci., 64. Sir Richard Blackmore’s Banter on the Philosophers … proved more his own than their Ignorance, when he thus sneers them.
a. 1900. in Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v., He sneered me shameful.
6. To curl up (the lip) in contempt or scorn. rare.
1775. S. J. Pratt, Liberal Opin., liii. (1783), II. 136. A pennyworth, sir!—cried the steward, (sneering up his upper-lip, till it touched the tip of his nose…) a pennyworth!
7. To affect in a certain way by sneering; to drive or force by means of sneers or scornful speech or manner:
a. Const. with preps., as from, into, out of.
1737. Savage, Of Public Spirit, 325. Careless of Whispers meant to wound their Name, Nor sneer’d nor brib’d from Virtue into Shame.
1859. Habits of Gd. Society, vii. 243. Who contradicts us flatly, and sneers us into insignificance.
1867. Augusta Wilson, Vashti, xviii. The world has not sneered it [feminine constancy] entirely out of existence.
refl. 1841. Thackeray, Sec. Funeral Napoleon, iii. It sneaks and bullies and sneers itself into place.
b. Const. with advs., as away or down.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xii. But dinna ye sneer awa the lad Lovel.
1838. Lytton, Alice, VI. ii. Proclaimed a sublime genius in the same circles which sneer down Voltaire.
1868. Whyte-Melville, White Rose, xlviii. Very likely they were laughing over his infatuation and sneering her fair fame away.
1868. Helps, Realmah, viii. (1876), 237. Sneering can do a great deal: you can sneer down, at any rate for the moment, truth, honour [etc.].
refl. 1847. Helps, Friends in C., I. iv. 68. He mutters to himself sarcastically, sneering himself up as it were to the attack.
