snip

snip

See also: сніп

English

Etymology

From Dutch snippen (“to snip; shred”) or Low German snippen (“to snip; shred”), of imitative origin.[1] Compare snap.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /snɪp/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Homophone: SNP
• Rhymes: -ɪp

Verb

snip (third-person singular simple present snips, present participle snipping, simple past and past participle snipped)

1. To cut with short sharp actions, as with scissors.

   I don't want you to take much hair off; just snip my mullet off.

2. To reduce the price of a product, to create a snip.
3. To break off; to snatch away.
   • 1720, [Daniel Defoe], The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton, London: […] J. Brotherton, […], J. Graves […], A. Dodd, […], and T. Warner, […], OCLC 19425974:

     The captain seldom ordered anything out of the ship's stores […] but I snipt […] some of it for my own share.

4. (informal) To circumcise.
   • 2001, David Cohen, The Father's Book: Being a Good Dad in the 21st Century, John WIley & Sons Ltd, published 2001, →ISBN, page 72:

     Circumcised fathers face a special problem. Do you want your son's willy to be that radically different from your own? So, parents should perhaps not be put off. Be good to your son's future lovers and have him snipped.

   • 2008, Ilene Schneider, Talk Dirty Yiddish: Beyond Drek: The Curses, Slang, and Street Lingo You Need to Know When You Speak Yiddish, Adams Media, published 2008, →ISBN, page 150:

     His children, however, were not snipped, possibly because Princess Diana was opposed to the practice, which is out of fashion in England.

   • 2012, Tom Hickman, God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis, Square Peg, published 2012, →ISBN, page 144:

     By the outbreak of the First World War such claims had diminished and the medical profession touted circumcision as being 'hygienic' — fathers were not only encouraged to have their newborn sons snipped, but to belatedly enjoy the benefits themselves.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:snip.
5. (Internet) To remove the irrelevant parts of quotations in the reply message.

Translations

to cut with short sharp actions

Bulgarian: режа с ножица (reža s nožica) Finnish: leikata (fi), saksia (fi) French: découper (fr), cisailler (fr) Hungarian: lenyisszant, lemetsz (hu) Polish: ciachać impf, ciachnąć pf Spanish: cortar (es)

Noun

snip (plural snips)

1. The act of snipping; cutting a small amount off of something.
2. A single cut with scissors, clippers, or similar tool.
3. A small amount of something; a pinch.
4. A piece cut out by snipping.
   • 1967, Elizabeth George Speare, The Prospering (page 293)

     It was true about the fanmaking; the table and floor were littered with snips of paper.

5. (informal) Something acquired for a low price; a bargain.

   That wholesale auction lot was a snip at $10.

6. (definite, the snip, euphemistic) A vasectomy.
7. (informal) A small or weak person, especially a young one.
   • 2010, Ellen Renner, Castle of Shadows, Hachette UK, published 2010, →ISBN:

     'Might as well come out now, you little snip, from wherever you be hiding!'

8. (onomatopoeia) An act or sound of snipping, the sound produced by scissors.
9. (dated) An impertinent or mischievous person.
   • 1835, William Hamilton Maxwell, My Life (page 283)

     Nor was the lady's establishment more fortunate in gaining the regard of the household. The maid was a verjuiced spinster, too old to love herself, and too ill-natured to look on. The footman was a regular snip […]

10. (obsolete) A share or portion; a snack.
    • 1680, Roger L'Estrange, The Free-Born Subject, Or, the Englishmans Birthright Asserted Against All Tyrannical Vsvrpations Either in Church or State

      His Third Query is a Frank Proposal, without any more ado, of taking all the Church Lands into the Crown; and Courteously he offers the Poor Cavaliers a Snip in the Booty

11. (obsolete, slang) A tailor.
    • 1850, Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke

      […] you fool, why did you let out that you were a snip?"
      "I am not ashamed of my trade.”

12. A white marking on a horse's muzzle, between the nostrils.

Translations

the act of snipping

Bulgarian: рязане (bg) n (rjazane) Dutch: knip (nl) m Finnish: leikkaaminen (fi) Hungarian: nyisszantás, lenyisszantás, levágás (hu), lemetszés (hu) Icelandic: snifsi n

a low price, a bargain

Finnish: hyvä kauppa Hungarian: potya (hu)

a small amount of something

Bulgarian: парче (bg) (parče), изрезка (bg) (izrezka) Finnish: hitunen (fi), palanen (fi)

a euphemism for a vasectomy

sound produced by scissors

French: tchac (fr) Italian: zac Romanian: țac (ro) Turkish: kırt

Derived terms

• snipper
• snippy

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “snip”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• Insp, NIPs, NPIs, Nips, PINs, PSNI, nips, pins, spin

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Dutch

Alternative forms

• snep (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle Dutch snippe, ultimately from the root of snavel (“beak”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /snɪp/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: snip
• Rhymes: -ɪp

Noun

snip f (plural snippen, diminutive snipje n)

1. A snipe or woodcock, thin-beaked bird of the genera Gallinago, Scolopax, Lymnocryptes, Limnodromus and Coenocorypha.
2. (informal, Netherlands) A 100 guilders banknote.

Derived terms

• houtsnip
• poelsnip
• snipverkouden
• watersnip

Descendants

• Afrikaans: snip
• → Papiamentu: snepi, snèpi
• → Sranan Tongo: snepi