snipper-snapper Now dial.
[Of fanciful formation: cf. whipper-snapper.]
A young insignificant or conceited fellow.
| c 1590 Marlowe Dr. Faustus xi. 1161 Ile seeke out my Doctor..: O yonder is his snipper snapper. 1600 Dekker Shoemaker's Holiday iv, Quick snipper-snapper, away Firke, Scour thy throat. 1638 Ford Fancies i. ii, Thou'rt a prick-ear'd foist,..a knack, a snipper-snapper! 1677 Poor Robin's Vision 12 Having ended his discourse, this seeming gentile snipper-snapper vanisht. 1835 Moore Mem. (1856) VII. 108 Far better worth listening to than many of the young snipper-snappers of his profession. 1854 A. E. Baker Northampt Gloss., Snipper-snapper, a small, insignificant, effeminate, self-conceited young man. |