Also 3 snvuelinde, 5 snyvelande; 4 snyvelinge, 5 sneuelyng, snevyllynge, etc. [f. SNIVEL v.]
1. Of the nose, etc.: Discharging, or full of, snivel. Also of persons, given to snivelling or snuffling.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 319. Snvuelinde nose and wet mouth.
1483. Cath. Angl., 347/1. Snyvelande (A. Snevyllynge), naricans, naricus.
1608. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. IV. Decay, 175. Stooping as she goes, With driveling mouth, and with a sniveling nose.
1615. Baud, Ruffe, & Cuffe (Halliw.), 16. He is a most filthy snivelling fellow…; he will wipe your nose of all, if you put the case to him.
1813. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., 72. A snivelling fellow he’s call’d by his foes, For he can’t raise his paw up to blow his red nose.
1862. C. A. Collins, in Macm. Mag., Sept., 380. Another, whom he remembers a little snivelling boy.
1902. Times, 16 July, 13/6. The wonderful picture of leering, chuckling, snivelling senility.
transf. 1858. R. S. Surtees, Ask Mamma, xxiii. The landlady brought a snivelling mould candle into the cheerless … little inn-parlour.
b. Of a cold: Accompanied by snivelling.
1687. Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., II. A snivelling Cold, un Rûme.
2. Sounding through the nose. rare.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 21. At the laste he thus owt abrayde Wyth a sneuelyng vooys & to hyr sayde.
1816. J. Gilchrist, Philos. Etym., xvii. To see this good, plain dialect superseded by snivelling, flippant, senseless French.
3. Displaying emotion or the semblance of it; mean-spirited, weak: a. Of persons.
1647. J. C[leveland], Char. Lond.-Diurn., 8. Two of Mars his Petty-toes, such snivelling Cowards, that it is a favour to call them so.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 84. The snivling Presbyterians … did not stick to report that he died no better than a Brewers Clerk.
1732. Fielding, Covent Gard. Trag., I. vii. Without wine all human kind wou’d be One stupid, sniveling, sneaking, sober fellow.
1790. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Advice to Future Laureat, Wks. 1812, II. 343. The little snivelling spirit.
1805. Dibdin, in Naval Chron., XIII. 394. The snivlingest scoundrel that ever was seen.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xxvi. Why not have kept him here among the rest, and made a sneaking, snivelling pickpocket of him at once?
1860. Emerson, Conduct of Life, ii. Wks. (Bohn), II. 335. These Hoosiers and Suckers are really better than the snivelling opposition.
b. Of discourse, writings, etc.
1673. Hickeringill, Gregory F. Greybeard, 276. Pickt the peoples pockets with canting long snivelling sermons.
1707. Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), II. 19. A poor, sniveling discourse.
1767. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, IX. xii. That snivelling virtue of Meekness.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 4. I have received a snivelling letter from Griffin, offering to make a public submission, and pay costs.
