or hookum snivey, subs. phr. (old).—1. An imposture; specifically, the getting of food on false pretences.
1781. G. PARKER, A View of Society, ii., 79. ‘HOOK AND SNIVEY, with Nix the Buffer’ [Title].
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. HOOK AND SNIVEY, WITH NIX THE BUFFER. This rig consists in feeding a man and a dog for nothing, and is carried on thus: Three men, one of whom pretends to be sick and unable to eat, go to a public house; the two well men make a bargain with the landlord for their dinner, and when he is out of sight, feed their pretended sick companion and dog gratis.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. HOOK AND SNIVVY—practised by soldiers in quarters when they obtain grub for nix.
1835 in The Comic Almanack. 1835–43 (HOTTEN), p. 17, Zoological Society at HOOKEM SNIVEY. A new animal has been transmitted from No-Man’s Land, which has been named the Flat-Catcher.
2. (old).—An impostor as described in sense 1.
3. (streets’).—A contemptuous or sarcastic affirmation, accompanied by the gesture of TAKING A SIGHT (q.v.) or PLAYING HOOKEY (q.v.).
4. (thieves’).—A crook of thick iron wire in a wooden handle, used to undo the wooden bolts of doors from without.
1801. R. L. EDGEWORTH and M. EDGEWORTH, Essay on Irish Bulls. With that I ranged them fair and even on my HOOK-EM SNIVEY—up they go.
