▪ I. sneap, n. Now arch.
(sniːp)
[f. sneap v.]
A snub or check; a rebuke, reproof.
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. i. 135 My Lord, I will not vndergo this sneape without reply. 1876 Weiss Wit, Humour, etc. iv. 149 A charter from Providence to give Falstaff his first sneap of retribution. 1887 Blackw. Mag. Sept. 365 He might have spared us this sneap, seeing that his own queen had been enamoured of an ass. |
▪ II. sneap, v. Now dial. and arch.
(sniːp)
Also 7 sneep.
[Later form of snaip snape v.1]
1. trans. To nip or pinch.
| 1588– [see sneaped, sneaping ppl. adjs.]. 1691 Ray N.C. Words 65 Herbs and Fruits sneapt with cold weather. |
2. To check, repress; to snub, reprove, chide.
| 1611 Sec. Maiden's Trag. iii. i, Nay I am gon, Ime a man quickly sneapt. 1640 Brome Antipodes iv. ix, Doe you sneap me too my Lord?.. I had No need to come hither to be sneapt. 1659 Mrs. Hutchinson Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1846) 391 They set him at light,..and made the poor man retire sneaped to his colonel. 1691 Ray N.C. Words 65 Children easily sneaped. 1865 S. Evans Brother Fabian's MS. 5 My lord Archbishop sneaps us for our sloth. 1886– in dial. glossaries, etc. (Lincs., Staffs.). |
| fig. and transf. 1623 Bp. Hall Works (1837) V. 141 That we do enough hate our corruptions; when, at our sharpest, we do but gently sneap them. 1642 H. More Song of Soul iii. iii. 18 Life that's here, When into it the soul doth closely wind, Is often sneep'd by anguish. |
Hence sneaped ppl. a.
| 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 333 To ad a more reioysing to the prime, And giue the sneaped birds more cause to sing. |