Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To fish for eels by thrusting a baited hook into their hiding places.
  • intransitive verb To catch (an eel) in this manner.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A guttural, nasal, or granting laugh; a snicker: used in contempt.
  • To fish for eels by thrusting bait into their lurking-places: a method chiefly English.
  • To catch, as an eel, by pushing the bait into the hole where the eel is; hence, figuratively, to catch; snare; entrap.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To fish for eels by thrusting the baited hook into their holes or hiding places.
  • transitive verb To catch, as an eel, by sniggling; hence, to hook; to insnare.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To catch an eel by thrusting a baited hook into its den.
  • verb Alternate spelling and pronunciation of snicker (corruption with giggle.) To chortle or chuckle.
  • verb obsolete To steal something of little value; diminutive corruption of snag + diminutive suffix.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From dialectal snig, a small eel, from Middle English snigge; probably akin to snegge, a snail, akin to Old English snægl, snail.]

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Examples

  • All we have to go on is Sprint's word (* sniggle sniggle*) that it sold a lot of them.

    InformationWeek - All Stories And Blogs 2010

  • Later, I found another tweeter saying that she had been sharing a power tower with me which led to a sniggle from another tweeter and wondering whether I was watching my name.

    Google Air? « BuzzMachine 2009

  • I almost got a Thoreau book, but there was that sniggle of guilt poking me in the eye.

    Delayed Gratification « So Many Books 2003

  • Sleep Paralysis Page Cross-cultural nightmare experience - aka The Hag.sniggle. net (the culture-jammer's encyclopaedia).

    Archive 2002-04-01 Ray Girvan 2002

  • Sleep Paralysis Page Cross-cultural nightmare experience - aka The Hag.sniggle. net (the culture-jammer's encyclopaedia).

    Places, history & myth Ray Girvan 2002

  • I walked in to ask if they were hiring and the owner and another employee behind the counter started to sniggle (I couldn't decide whether "snicker" or "giggle" was more appropriate).

    powerofrock Diary Entry powerofrock 2004

  • I walked in to ask if they were hiring and the owner and another employee behind the counter started to sniggle (I couldn't decide whether "snicker" or "giggle" was more appropriate).

    powerofrock Diary Entry powerofrock 2004

  • He did not rant; he did not cant; he did not whine; he did not sniggle; he just got up and spoke with the boldness of a man who was impressed with the truth of what he was saying, who has no fear of his enemies, and no dread of consequences.

    The Life of Charlotte Bronte 2002

  • Everyone was too intent on the exhibits, or on trying new foods and drinks, or on laughing at the wandering thranx sniggle poets, to pay special attention to one roving human-thranx pair.

    Diuturnity's Dawn Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2002

  • Everyone was too intent on the exhibits, or on trying new foods and drinks, or on laughing at the wandering thranx sniggle poets, to pay special attention to one roving human-thranx pair.

    Diuturnity's Dawn Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2002

Comments

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  • to fish for eels by thrusting a baited hook into their lurking places.

    April 18, 2007

  • Good grief! Here was this great word hanging around all these centuries and I didn't even know it!

    April 18, 2007