Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To go or move in a quiet, stealthy way.
- intransitive verb To behave in a cowardly or servile manner.
- intransitive verb To move, give, take, or put in a quiet, stealthy manner.
- noun A person regarded as stealthy, cowardly, or underhanded.
- noun An instance of sneaking; a quiet, stealthy movement.
- noun Informal A sneaker.
- adjective Carried out in a clandestine manner.
- adjective Perpetrated without warning.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To creep or steal about privately; go furtively, as if afraid or ashamed to be seen; slink.
- To behave with meanness and servility; crouch; truckle.
- To steal; pilfer. See
sneak-thief . - To hide; conceal in a furtive or cowardly manner.
- noun A mean, contemptible fellow; one who has recourse to mean and cowardly methods; a person of selfish and cowardly temper and conduct.
- noun A petty thief. See
sneak-thief and area-sneak. - noun In cricket, a ball bowled along the ground; a grub.
- noun In whist, a singleton lead.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To hide, esp. in a mean or cowardly manner.
- intransitive verb To creep or steal (away or about) privately; to come or go meanly, as a person afraid or ashamed to be seen.
- intransitive verb To act in a stealthy and cowardly manner; to behave with meanness and servility; to crouch.
- noun A mean, sneaking fellow.
- noun (Cricket), Cant A ball bowled so as to roll along the ground; -- called also
grub .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A mean, sneaking fellow.
- noun An informer; a tell-tale; a grass.
- noun obsolete , (
cricket ) Aball bowled so as to roll along the ground; a daisy-cutter - verb To
creep or steal (away or about) privately; to come or go meanly, as a person afraid or ashamed to be seen; - verb To
hide , especially in a mean or cowardly manner. - verb informal To inform an authority about another's misdemeanours; to tell tales; to grass.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb put, bring, or take in a secretive or furtive manner
- adjective marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed
- verb to go stealthily or furtively
- verb pass on stealthily
- verb make off with belongings of others
- noun someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police
- noun someone who prowls or sneaks about; usually with unlawful intentions
- noun a person who is regarded as underhanded and furtive and contemptible
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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All of this creates an image, a picture of a regime that would want, if not to actually acquire nuclear weapons tomorrow, to be within what we call a sneak-out or breakout capacity, where once that government makes the decision to make a bomb, it can make a bomb very, very quickly.
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Vanity Fair magazine on Wednesday offered what it called a "sneak peek" at its 72nd list of the year's style icons, with just the best-of women and men.
Thestar.com - Home Page Lesley Ciarula Taylor 2011
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At a news conference, Thompson said she was hiring a law firm to challenge the bankruptcy filing, which she called a "sneak attack" by council members.
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"A quarterback sneak is as elementary as it gets, and to not be able to get a few inches on fourth down, that's inexcusable."
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What you do is get a group of dogs that bark and corner the pig into a corner then you sneak from the back and shishkebab him in the neck with your knife, then run out of there as quick as possible.
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Here we go again – sneak it in through the back door like they did the health care debacle.
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What you do is get a group of dogs that bark and corner the pig into a corner then you sneak from the back and shishkebab him in the neck with your knife, then run out of there as quick as possible.
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#1 POSTED BY Ross McG, Aug 18th, 2009 3: 50 am cracking list, cant really argue with the top choice, and good to see Patrick Bergin sneak in there as well. would maybe have to find room for a few others:
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John Parker Wilson had converted a fourth-and-1 with a quarterback sneak from the Kentucky 46 to keep the drive alive.
USATODAY.com 2008
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Wells, who has been wearing a lineman's shoe to protect his injured foot, gained 13 more yards on three carries, and Pryor added another first down on a third-and-1 sneak from the 15 with under 2 minutes to play.
USATODAY.com 2008
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