Forms: α. 4 snevele, 5–6 sneuel, 6 -il, snevel(l, -ill, -yll; 9 dial. sneavel, Sc. sneevil. β. 4 snyvele, 5 -elle, 6 snyuel, 7 sniuel, 7– snivel (9 dial. snivvel). [OE. *snyflan (implied in snyflung SNIVELLING vbl. sb.), f. snofl mucus. Cf. Da. snøvle (older snevle) to snuffle.]
1. intr. To run at the nose; to emit mucus from the nose; also, to draw up mucus audibly.
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 173. Ely autre ne pout parler Une parole sanz nasyer, [glossed] snevelet, snyvele.
a. 1450. Langland’s P. Pl., B. V. 135 (MS. Bodl. 814). Now awakiþ wratthe, wiþ two white eiȝen, And sneuelyng wiþ his nose.
1483. Cath. Angl., 347/1. To Snyvelle, naricare.
1508. Kennedie, Flyting w. Dunbar, 550. Out! out! I schout, apon that snowt that snevillis.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 1865. The snyte snyueled in the snowte and smyled at the game.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, II. v. Dos’t so, snotty nose? Good Lord! are you sniueling?
1649. Quarles, Virgin Widow, II. Must I be still yawling, and calling… whilst y’are … potting, and piping, and driveling and sniveling!
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 375. When they are sheared they catch cold, and will be glandered, and snivel very much.
b. trans. (See quot.) rare.
1530. Palsgr., 723/2. I snevell, I beraye any thynge with snyvell, je amorue. Se bowe this boye snyvelleth his cote.
c. To clear (the nose) by snuffling.
1835. Politeness & Gd.-breeding, 104. Never … snivel and snort a wet nose.
2. intr. To make a sniffing or snuffling sound expressive of real or assumed emotion; to be in, or affect, a tearful state.
1690. Dryden, Prol. to ‘Mistakes.’ I left our young Poet sniveling and sobbing behind the Scenes, and cursing somebody that has deceiv’d him.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 364, ¶ 4. To take a Lad from Grammar and … send him crying and snivelling into foreign Countries.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, II. 329. And whip thee hence Home to thy galley, sniveling like a boy.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxiii. What signified his bringing a woman here to snotter and snivel, and bather their Lordships?
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, lxii. Every woman in the house was snivelling at the time.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, III. i. 22. Why do you stand there snivelling about him.
3. trans. a. To affect in some way by snivelling; to address in a snivelling manner. rare.
1667. R. L’Estrange, Vis. Quev., 328. To Snivel, and Sneeze himself into another World.
1700. Congreve, Way of World, I. ix. Let ’em snivel and cry their Hearts out.
1717. Entertainer, No. 25. 168. Thus they Whine and Snivel the Multitude, to enrich themselves and help forward the Faction.
b. To utter with a snivelling or sniffing sound; to shed (tears) snufflingly. Also with out.
1780. Cowper, Progr. Error, 310. Ye novelists, who mar what ye would mend, Sniv’ling and driv’ling folly without end.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxx. I heard the former snivel out, in a very subdued tone, ‘And ye’ll ask her’ [etc.].
1851. Thackeray, Eng. Hum., vi. (1876), 328. That fine flower of love … over which Sterne snivelled so many tears.
1865. Alex. Smith, Summer in Skye, I. 236–7. There the doctor saluted Flora, and snivelled his compliments.
