Library / English Dictionary

SNEAK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: snuck   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police

Synonyms:

canary; fink; sneak; sneaker; snitch; snitcher; stool pigeon; stoolie; stoolpigeon

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("sneak" is a kind of...):

betrayer; blabber; informer; rat; squealer (one who reveals confidential information in return for money)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who prowls or sneaks about; usually with unlawful intentions

Synonyms:

prowler; sneak; stalker

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("sneak" is a kind of...):

interloper; intruder; trespasser (someone who intrudes on the privacy or property of another without permission)

Derivation:

sneak (to go stealthily or furtively)

sneak; sneaky (marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person who is regarded as underhanded and furtive and contemptible

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("sneak" is a kind of...):

disagreeable person; unpleasant person (a person who is not pleasant or agreeable)

Derivation:

sneak (marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed)

sneaky (marked by deception)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed

Example:

a surreptitious glance at his watch

Synonyms:

furtive; sneak; sneaky; stealthy; surreptitious

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

concealed (hidden on any grounds for any motive)

Derivation:

sneak (someone who prowls or sneaks about; usually with unlawful intentions)

sneak (a person who is regarded as underhanded and furtive and contemptible)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

To go stealthily or furtively

Example:

..stead of sneaking around spying on the neighbor's house

Synonyms:

creep; mouse; pussyfoot; sneak

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "sneak" is one way to...):

walk (use one's feet to advance; advance by steps)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The children sneak to the playground

Also:

sneak away; sneak out (leave furtively and stealthily)

Derivation:

sneak (someone who prowls or sneaks about; usually with unlawful intentions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Pass on stealthily

Example:

He slipped me the key when nobody was looking

Synonyms:

slip; sneak

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "sneak" is one way to...):

give; hand; pass; pass on; reach; turn over (place into the hands or custody of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make off with belongings of others

Synonyms:

abstract; cabbage; filch; hook; lift; nobble; pilfer; pinch; purloin; snarf; sneak; swipe

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "sneak" is one way to...):

rip; rip off; steal (take without the owner's consent)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Sentence example:

They sneak the money

Sense 4

Meaning:

Put, bring, or take in a secretive or furtive manner

Example:

sneak a cigarette

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "sneak" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence examples:

They sneak the food to the people

They sneak the people the food

They sneak the parcel to their parents

They sneak them the parcel

Credits

 Context examples: 

Laurie came sneaking into the kitchen of the Dovecote one Saturday, with an excited face, and was received with the clash of cymbals, for Hannah clapped her hands with a saucepan in one and the cover in the other.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Six days after injections, the researchers found that the growing neurons exclusively filled their chambers while the growing blood vessel cells not only lined their chamber in a cobblestone pattern reminiscent of vessels in the body, but also snuck through the perforations in the chamber walls and contacted the neurons.

(Researchers begin recreating human spinal cords on a chip, National Institutes of Health)

On shipboard he would be a sneak, a whiner, a tattler.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Thomas Mugridge is a sneak, a spy, an informer.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He sneaked back into his cell, amidst a little chorus of approbation; and both Traddles and I experienced a great relief when he was locked in.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I dared commit no fault: I strove to fulfil every duty; and I was termed naughty and tiresome, sullen and sneaking, from morning to noon, and from noon to night.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The team dispersed in ignominious defeat, and it was not until after dark that the dogs came sneaking back, one by one, by meekness and humility signifying their fealty to White Fang.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

"You kin fight in the middle, under the electric light, an' whichever way the bulls come in we kin sneak the other way."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

You think it justifiable, do you, Copperfield, you who pride yourself so much on your honour and all the rest of it, to sneak about my place, eaves-dropping with my clerk?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"That is for your impudence in answering mama awhile since," said he, "and for your sneaking way of getting behind curtains, and for the look you had in your eyes two minutes since, you rat!"

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)