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There's never been anything pretty about sniveling. Snivel, which originally meant simply "to have a runny nose," was probably snyflan in Old English. It's likely related to sniffle, not surprisingly, and also to an Old English word for mucus, snofl. It's even related to the Middle Dutch word for a cold, snof, and the Old Norse word for "snout," which is snoppa. There's also a connection to nan, a Greek verb meaning "flow." Nowadays, we mostly use snivel as we have since the 1600s: to refer to self-pitying whining, whether or not such sniveling is accompanied by unchecked nasal flow.
Examples of snivel in a Sentence
Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 28 Sep. 2024
Still, the war between the virtuous Autobots and the sniveling Decepticons has enough sheer weirdness to it to serve as inspiration for compelling fiction, even if Michael Bay has never managed to crack that code.
—Wilson Chapman, IndieWire, 12 Sep. 2024
But any hopes of a warm and fuzzy family reunion were dashed in the Season 3 finale, when Soldier Boy called Homelander weak and sniveling.
—Vlada Gelman, TVLine, 18 July 2024
Gollum feels some guilt, finally Photo: New Line Cinema
Serkis does a fantastic job in The Two Towers bouncing back and forth between the aggressive and conniving Gollum and the needy and sniveling Smeagol as the creature grows close to Frodo but is also increasingly drawn to the One Ring.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2024
And is too much to have the sniveling Scots swim coach (Christopher Eccleston) actually heave a radio through the nearest window pane at a key moment?
—Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, 31 May 2024
Like what, low-crawling out of town like a bunch of sniveling cowards?
—Nick Canepa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Feb. 2024
Succession did a lot of things right — hiring Nicholas Britell to compose its instantly delectable theme music and score the show, turning Mr. Darcy into the sniveling sycophant that is Tom Wambsgans, making Willa write the flop play Sands that bankrupts her sugar daddy.
—Vulture, 21 Dec. 2023
In 1961, for a conference convened by Lefebvre himself, the S.I. submitted a tape recording—attending would have suggested a sniveling reverence for expertise.
—Tobi Haslett, Harper's Magazine, 18 Sep. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'snivel.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near snivel
Cite this Entry
“Snivel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snivel. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
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