Also 6 snyppe. [prob. of Du. or LG. origin: cf. Du., Flem. and LG. snippen, G. dial. schnippen, schnipfen, schniffen, to snip, snatch, etc.]
† 1. trans. To take (something) quickly or suddenly; to snap or snatch. Obs.
1586. J. Hooker, Hist. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 83/1. One of your horssemen promised me a choise horsse, if I snip one haire from your beard. Well, quoth the earle,… if thou plucke anie more than one [etc.].
1633. Rowley, Match at Midnight, II. i. Well, and she be snipped by threescore and ten, may she live six-score and eleven.
1720. De Foe, Capt. Singleton, i. (1840), 7. The captain seldom ordered anything … but I snipt some of it for my own share.
absol. 1592. Greene, Def. Conny Catch., Wks. (Grosart), XI. 96. They wil to snip and snap, that al the reuersion goes into hel.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., To Rdr. While we … snip here and snatch there from some of them.
2. To cut, to cut up or off, by or as by scissors or some similar cutting instrument.
1593. Norden, Spec. Brit. (Camden), Pref. p. xiv. They have snippers wherwith they snyppe and pare their plates.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., xlii. Hee takes the Measure of his Maister’s stuffe, And Snips it to a Size … Convenient for his Fashion.
1682. H. More, Cont. Remark. Stories, 28. She could put on no clean Linnens nor Holiday Clothes, but they would be snipt and slasht full of holes.
1796. Pearson, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVI. 445. It was snipt a good deal, and several holes were worn in the middle.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xl. He found Becky and her companion … busy cutting, ripping, snipping, and tearing all sorts of black stuffs.
1871. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 599. If one of these muscular capsules be snipped by means of a pair of very fine scissors.
fig. 1628. Jackson, Creed, VI. Wks. VI. 83. For snipping this secret hypocrisy … this exercise of the civil sword hath no force or dint.
1674. J. B[rian], Harvest-Home, ii. 5. Th’ impartial Fates … With keenest Scissars snip lifes thread asunder.
1893. Advance (Chicago), 11 May. While the ‘Higher Criticism’ is laboriously snipping the book of Genesis into ‘Elohistic’ and ‘Jehovistic’ fragments.
b. absol. To make a cut or cuts with or as with scissors, etc. Also, of scissors: To cut.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 138. Like a Barber’s Scissars, which are always snipping, as well when they do not cut, as when they do.
1827. Scott, Jrnl., 7 Dec. I wish I have not made that article too long, and Lockhart will not snip away.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxix. Miss Tox,… arming herself with her scissors, began to snip and clip among the leaves.
1872. Proctor, Ess. Astron., xxiv. 312. One can snip round the borders of a region until its size has been reduced.
c. To injure by chipping or taking small pieces out of.
1822–. in north. dial. use (Eng. Dial. Dict.).
1884. L’pool Mercury, 22 Oct., 5/5. The granite pedestal may be snipped; or a thousand other disasters may occur.
d. Cricket. To hit (the ball) lightly; to snick.
1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 21 Aug., 6/3. Maclaren soon opens his account…, but gently snipping a ball from Streatfeild he is easily caught by Abel in the slips.
3. To cut off by means of scissors or other sharp instrument. Also fig.
1611. Cotgr., Mordiller, to nibble, gnaw, fret, snip off.
1624. Gataker, Transubst., 214. Hee should haue done well … to haue snipt off or concealed at least, the last clause.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Fair Maid Inn, IV. i. Because I will not afflict you with any large bill Of circumstances, I’ll snip off particulars.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1699), 339. He takes hold of the fore-skin with two sticks and with a pair of Scissors snips it off.
1742. H. Baker, Microsc., II. x. 122. A piece of the … Membrane … snipped off with a pair of sharp Scissars.
1826. S. Cooper, First Lines Surgery (ed. 5), 349. The new opening … is then to be enlarged by snipping off the flap of the iris.
1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., I. 79. He has snipt off as much as he could pinch from every author of reputation.
1888. Freeman, in Stephens, Life (1895), II. x. 380. I simply had my uvula snipped off.
b. With away, from, out of, etc.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 101. By snipping away the superfluities of the paper from her figure.
1858. Dickens, Lett. (1880), II. 60. He is perpetually snipping pieces out of newspapers.
1896. H. B. Marriott Watson, in Pall Mall Mag., May, 16. A bullet snipped a corner from my hat.
c. To cut out by snipping. Also fig.
1800. Asiatic Ann. Reg., II. 113/2. He next proceeded very accurately to snip out their suspicions into four and twenty parts.
1855. O. W. Holmes, Poems, 137. Boys … Who, for a very trifling sum, Will snip one’s picture out.
4. To snub, check, repress. Now dial.
1601–14. [see SNIPPING vbl. sb. 3].
1647. Fuller, Good Th. in Worse T., 24. If I were curb’d and Snip’t in my younger yeares by feare of my parents, from those vicious excrescencies.
1823–. dial. use (Suffolk, Somerset, Devon).
5. Used adverbially to denote either sound or action.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 189. How many towns he owns, who went snip, snip; As his quick sizzers my young beard did clip!
