▪ I. snub, n.1
(snʌb)
Also 6 snobbe, snubbe.
[f. snub v.1 Cf. MSw. and Norw. snubba in sense 1; Sw. dial. snubba a short-stemmed pipe, short-horned cow.]
I. 1. a. An act or instance of snubbing; a remark or action intended to repress or rebuke a person.
| 1537 Cranmer in State Papers Hen. VIII, I. 562 Although in the meane season you suffre some snubbes..for the same, yet one day He will requite altogether. 1583 Babington Commandm. (1590) 209 When euer any snubs and checkes in worde or countenance vndeserued arise. 1598 Stow Surv. 470 In which Tragedie London..had now and then a part, and had many a snubbe at the kinges hand. a 1688 Bunyan Israel's Hope Encouraged Wks. 1852 I. 589 This word ‘let’ is sometimes used by way of rebuke and snub. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) VIII. 10, I..must have been accustomed to snubs and rebuffs from the affluent. 1861 Sat. Rev. 14 Sept. 269 When we endeavour to analyse it, the immediate effect of a snub is to induce a feeling of deprivation and exposure. 1885 Manch. Exam. 11 Mar. 5/5 Mr. Gladstone..administered to the most presumptuous member of the House a proper snub. |
b. pl. As int., expressing total indifference or contempt. slang.
| 1934 Neuphilologische Mitteilungen XXXV. 130 Prep⁓school slang..snubs interj. accompanied by making a long nose. 1945 E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited i. vi. 135 Now I shall tell her I have had it straight from a real artist, and snubs to her. |
† 2. A check, stop, stay, hindrance. Obs.
| 1581 T. Lawson Orchett (MS. Lansd. 208 lf. 142 b), Mortimer in all haist pursued y⊇ Saxons, And gaue thame snobbes with his Britons. 1615 W. Lawson Country Housew. Garden (1626) 18 Thriuing without snub he will ouerlay your grafted Stocke much. 1672 P. Henry Diaries & Lett. (1882) 248 Exchequer stopt from issuing forth moneyes to pay debts for this year, a snub to trade. |
3. U.S. A sudden check given to a rope or cable in running out; a post or stake enabling this to be done.
| 1891 in Cent. Dict. |
II. 4. A snag or stub. rare
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. viii. 7 Lifting vp his dreadfull club on hight, All arm'd with ragged snubbes and knottie graine. 1925 W. de la Mare Broomsticks 220 Not so much as an ole scrubbin'-brush or a snub of soap. |
5. Mech. ? = snug n.1 2. Also fig.
| 1844 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. VII. 19/2 The swings are attached to the frame by means of snubs.., which are bolted vertically to the lower ends of the swings. 1973 R. D. Symons Where Wagon Led p. xiii, A man who cannot put a snub on his temper had better leave horses alone. |
▪ II. † snub, n.2 Obs.—1
[Cf. snub v.2]
A sob.
| 1742 Shenstone Schoolmistr. xxiv, He..with snubs profound, and heaving breast,..does declare His grievous wrong. |
▪ III. snub, n.3 and a.
(snʌb)
[See snub nose.]
A. n.
1. A snub nose.
| 1830 Marryat Pacha Many T. xv, As my father's nose was aquiline, and mine is a snub. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. ii. Aunt Fanny vii, She turn'd up her dear little snub at ‘the Man’. 1862 Sala Seven Sons I. xi. 266 Her nose between the mild retroussé and the decided snub. |
2. Geom. A snub polyhedron or polytope.
| 1948 H. S. M. Coxeter Regular Polytopes viii. 151 (heading) The snub {ob}3, 4, 3{cb}. 1952 Cundy & Rollett Math. Models iii. 94 It can be proved..that..there are only thirteen Archimedean solids, two of which occur in two forms. Those two are the two ‘snubs’. 1971 M. J. Wenninger Polyhedron Models iii. 179 Great inverted snub icosidodecahedron. This polyhedron is another snub that is simpler in construction than most of the others in this set. |
B. adj.
1. Of the nose: Short and turned up.
| 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xvi, That order of nose on which the envy of mankind has bestowed the appellation ‘snub’. 1853 Mrs. Gaskell Cranford i, Her nose was unformed and snub. 1886 Welldon Aristotle's Rhet. 30 The aquiline or snub character of a nose. |
2. Snub-nosed.
| 1883 G. Meredith Poems of Joy of Earth 39 The snub kids Upon hindlegs went sportive. |
3. Geom. Used to designate certain symmetrical polyhedra and polytopes; in general, they have no mirror symmetry and occur in enantiomorphic pairs. [tr. L. sīmus squashed (Kepler Harmonices Mundi (1619) V. ii. xxviii. 62).]
A snub cube has as its faces 6 squares and 32 equilateral triangles; a snub dodecahedron has 12 pentagons and 80 equilateral triangles: they are more nearly spherical than the cube and dodecahedron to which Kepler related them, hence the name.
| 1934 Proc. London Math. Soc. XXXVIII. 338 We might symbolize such a snub polytope by ringing all the dots in the graph. [Note] The word ‘snub’ is a free translation of Kepler's simus. 1952 Cundy & Rollett Math. Models iii. 101 (caption) Snub cube. Ibid. 108 (caption) Snub dodecahedron. 1971 M. J. Wenninger Polyhedron Models i. 32 The snub dodecahedron. This polyhedron has the same relation to the regular dodecahedron that the snub cube has to the regular hexahedron. |
▪ IV. snub, v.1
(snʌb)
Also 4 snube, 5–6 snubbe, 7 snubb.
[a. ON. snubba (MSw. snubba, snobba), recorded in sense 1; mod. Norw. and Sw. dial. snubba, Da. snubbe, have also the sense of cutting short, making stumpy, etc. See also snib v.1]
1. trans. To check, reprove, or rebuke in a sharp or cutting manner; in later use, to treat or receive (a person, suggestion, etc.) in a way calculated to repress or mortify.
| (a) a 1340 Hampole Psalter lviii. 17 They sal snube [v.r. snyb] þaim, þat will not be converted. 1483 Cath. Angl. 347/2 To Snubbe. 1570 Levins Manip. 181 To Snubbe, arguere, culpare. a 1610 Babington Wks. (1622) 48 We see the great..goodnesse of God,..neuer snubbing any child of his for imperfection of faith. 1676 G. Etherege Man of Mode iii. ii, Do not you fall on him, Medley, and snub him. Sooth him up in his extravagance! 1727 De Foe Protestant Monastery 6 When they see the Son curbing the Father, or the Daughter snubbing the Mother. 1796 F. Burney Camilla V. 9, I often snub Hal..for fear of his getting out of my hands. 1835 Marryat J. Faithful xv, Mr. Turnbull occasionally throwing in a word, and each time snubbed by his wife. 1882 B. D. W. Ramsay Rough Recoll. I. viii. 187, I ventured to address him, and was most decidedly snubbed. |
| fig. 1620 Sanderson Serm. I. 146 The force of natural conscience..will be sometimes snubbing, and stinging, and lashing, and vexing him. |
| (b) 1861 Holme Lee Warp & Woof I. 30 Ursula..snubbed it as she would have snubbed any plan that did not originate with herself. 1882 in R. Geog. Soc. Suppl. Papers I. i. 117 The stream now..runs in rock-strewn whirls and races which snub any question about its navigability. 1891 Spectator 2 May, Nothing could be more foolish than to snub voluntary effort. |
b. absol. To employ snubbing; † to scold.
| 1694 Congreve Double-Dealer iii. vi, I acquiesce, my Lady, but don't snub so loud. 1787 [see snubbee]. 1861 Sat. Rev. 14 Sept. 269 But there need be nothing cruel in the man who snubs. 1907 Blackw. Mag. Nov. 678/1 The power to snub is a weapon of defence. |
† c. To take up sharply or severely; to order about in a sharp fashion. Obs.
| 1672 Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Rehearsal iv. i. (Arb.) 95 A fierce Hero, that frights his Mistriss, snubs up Kings,..and does what he will. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) III. Misc. v. ii. 271 To censure merely what another Person writes, to twitch, snap, snub up, or banter. a 1797 M. Wollstonecraft Posth. Wks. (1798) I. 160 She did not like to go to service, to be snubbed about, after being her own mistress. |
2. † a. To check or restrain (a thing); to prevent from having free course or development. Obs.
| 1583 Babington Commandm. (1590) 251 Euery Christian is to take heede..to snub the course of Sathan at the first. 1592 ― Notes Genesis xxxviii. §8. 151 Beware we then euer of discontent, and snubbe it betimes. a 1624 Bp. M. Smith Serm. 186 Wisedome..snubbeth and crosseth all vnlawfull designes. a 1688 Bunyan Christ a Compl. Saviour Wks. 1853 I. 217 He is holy, and so will snub their lusts. |
b. Naut. and U.S. To check or stop (a rope or cable) suddenly while running out; to stop or bring up (a boat, etc.) sharply or suddenly, esp. by passing a rope round a post; to fasten or tie (up).
| (a) 1841 R. H. Dana Seaman's Man. 124 Snub, to check a rope suddenly. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Snubbing her, bringing a ship up suddenly with an anchor. 1887 Century Mag. Aug. 483/2 A deck-hand forward to ‘snub’ her in the locks and take a line to the tow-path. |
| (b) 1888 Century Mag. Mar. 660/1 He is taught this by being violently snubbed up..the first two or three times that he feels the noose settle round his neck. 1895 Outing XXVII. 224/1, I kept him snubbed up too closely for him to get a start. 1903 A. Adams Log Cowboy x. 153 We took a guy line from the wagon and snubbed it to a tree. |
3. To check the growth of; to shorten; to cut, nip, or break off, the end of (a thing). Now rare.
| 1615 W. Lawson Country Housew. Garden (1626) 35 Either snub his top with a nip betwixt your finger and your thumb, or with a sharpe knife. 1641 H. Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 77 The yeere was (as yett) but younge, and the field indifferent good, and not much snubbed. 1704 Ray Creation i. (ed. 4) 96 The Trees..whose Heads and Boughs I have observ'd..to be so snub'd by the Winds, as if their Boughs and Leaves had been par'd or shaven off on that side. 1831 J. Porter Sir E. Seaward's Narr. I. 161, I therefore hung the handkerchief on the branch of a tree, that I snubbed off short for the purpose. 1886 S.W. Linc. Gloss. 136 You should ha' putten some salt on, it would ha' snubbed them [sc. weeds] anyhow. |
b. To make snub-nosed or snub.
| 1796 Mod. Gulliver 186 Get snubb'd i' th' nose—or haply singe our beards. 1845 S. Judd Margaret i. xiv, They laughed, and snubbed their noses with their handkerchiefs. |
† 4. To cheat or defraud. Obs.
| 1694 Echard Plautus 93 For th' old Men ha' now open'd a Passage for my Tricks to make Incursions, and snub 'em o' their Mony. |
5. intr. To press bluntly.
| 1846 in Thornton Amer. Gloss. (1912) s.v., I felt the cold nose of the captain of the band [of sharks] snubbing against my side. |
Hence ˈsnubbable a. (Cf. unsnubbable a.)
| 1908 L. A. Tollemache Old & Odd Mem. 130 So wholesomely snubbable as just to stop short of being bores. |
▪ V. snub, v.2 Now dial. and U.S.
[var. of snob v.1]
intr. To sob.
| 1621 T. Bedford Sin unto Death 50 He striveth, strugleth, roareth, sobbeth, snubbeth, and ready he is to burst for anger. 1671 in Skinner. 1880 Scribner's Mag. June 300/2, I heerd her a-cryin' an' a-snubbin', all night. |