SNIGGER, “I’m SNIGGERED if you will,” a mild form of swearing. Another form of this is JIGGERED.
SNIGGERING, laughing to oneself.—East.
SNIP, a tailor.
SNIPE, a long bill; also a term for attorneys,—a race remarkable for their propensity to long bills.
SNIPES, “a pair of SNIPES,” a pair of scissors. They are occasionally made in the form of that bird.
SNITCHERS, persons who turn queen’s evidence, or who tell tales. In Scotland, SNITCHERS signify handcuffs.
SNOB, a low, vulgar, or affected person. Supposed to be from the nickname usually applied to a Crispin, or a maker of shoes; but believed by a writer in Notes and Queries to be a contraction of the Latin, SINE OBOLO. A more probable derivation, however, has just been forwarded by an ingenious correspondent. He supposes that NOBS, i.e., Nobiles, was appended in lists to the names of persons of gentle birth, whilst those who had not that distinction were marked down as S. NOB., i.e., sine nobilitate, without marks of gentility,—thus reversing its meaning. Another “word-twister” remarks that, as at college sons of nobleman wrote after their names in the admission lists, fil nob., son of a lord, and hence all young noblemen were called NOBS, and what they did NOBBY, so those who imitated them would be called quasi-nobs, “like a nob,” which by a process of contraction would be shortened to si-nob, and then SNOB, one who pretends to be what he is not, and apes his betters. The short and expressive terms which many think fitly represent the three great estates of the realm, NOB, SNOB, and MOB, were all originally slang words. The last has safely passed through the vulgar ordeal of the streets, and found respectable quarters in the standard dictionaries.
SNOBBISH, stuck up, proud, make believe.
SNOB-STICK, a workman who refuses to join in strikes, or trade unions. Query, properly KNOB-STICK.
SNOOKS, an imaginary personage often brought forward as the answer to an idle question, or as the perpetrator of a senseless joke.