sneap means A rebuke; a reprimand. It carries an Arena rating of 1589, earned across 8 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sneap ranks #996 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,825 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #1,986 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,003 of 17,163 for Funniest Words.
sneap is pronounced /sniːp/.
Why “sneap” is a great word
SNEAP — [Noun, Verb] A sharp rebuke or the act of delivering one; to bite, nip, or check with a cutting reprimand. From the verb variant of 'snape', from Middle English snaipen ("to injure, nip, rebuke"), from Old Norse sneypa ("to disgrace, dishonour, outrage"), from Proto-Germanic *snaupijaną, from *snūpaną, *snūbaną ("to cut, snap"). First attested in the late 1500s (verb) and early 1600s (noun), notably in the works of William Shakespeare. Unlike an official 'reprimand' or the dismissive coldness of a 'snub', a sneap is a personal, stinging affront. It is the winter wind that lances through a threadbare coat, the gardener's frost that blackens tender shoots, or the precise, wounding phrase from a lover that leaves not anger but a slow, cold shame—a minor violence to the warmth of one's self-regard.
Etymology
The verb is a variant of snape, from Middle English snaipen (“to injure; of sleet or snow: to nip; to criticize, rebuke, revile”) [and other forms], from Old Norse sneypa (“to disgrace, dishonour; to outrage”), from Proto-Germanic *snaupijaną, from Proto-Germanic *snūpaną, *snūbaną (“to cut, snap”); further origin unknown. The noun is derived from the verb.
noun
- A rebuke; a reprimand.
verb
- To bite, nip, or pinch (someone or something).
- To check or abruptly reprove (someone); to chide, to rebuke, to reprimand.e.g.“Nay, I am gone. I'm a man quickly sneaped.” — 1611, Thomas Middleton, The Lady's Tragedy:
- To offend (someone); to put (someone's) nose out of joint.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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