snub

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /snʌb/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Northern England, Ireland) IPA^(key): /snʊb/
• Rhymes: -ʌb

Etymology 1

From Middle English snubben (also snibben), from Old Norse snubba (“to curse, chide, snub, scold, reprove”), which, like the source of English snip, is probably imitative in some manner. Cognate with Danish snibbe, dialectal Swedish snebba.

Adjective

snub (comparative more snub, superlative most snub)

1. Conspicuously short.

   a snub-nosed revolver

2. (of a nose) Flat and broad, with the end slightly turned up.
   • 1914, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, The Wisdom of Father Brown‎^[1]:

     It was even less easy to fix the impression in the case of the man at the right end of the table, who, to say truth, was as commonplace a person as could be seen anywhere, with a round, brown-haired head and a round snub nose, but also clad in clerical black, of a stricter cut.

   • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 2, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:

     If I close my eyes I can see Marie today as I saw her then. Round, rosy face, snub nose, dark hair piled up in a chignon.

3. (mathematics, of a polyhedron) Derived from a simpler polyhedron by the addition of extra triangular faces.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• retrosnub
• snub cube
• snub disphenoid
• snub dodecahedron
• snub nose
• snub-nosed
• snub polyhedron

Translations

conspicuously short

• Dutch: stomp (nl)
• Finnish: tynkä- (fi)
• Hebrew: חָרוּם (he) m (ẖarúm)
• Italian: camuso (it)
• Maori: noke (of the nose)

derived from a simpler polyhedron by the addition of triangular faces

• Finnish: pullistettu
• Latin: triangulatus m

Noun

snub (plural snubs)

1. A deliberate affront or slight.

   I hope the people we couldn't invite don't see it as a snub.

   • 1915, Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out, London: Duckworth & Co., […], →OCLC:

     It was part of Evelyn’s character that in spite of many snubs which she received or imagined, she never gave up the pursuit of people she wanted to know, and in the long run generally succeeded in knowing them and even in making them like her.

   • 2017 January 14, “Thailand's new king rejects the army's proposed constitution”, in The Economist‎^[2]:

     The bluntness of King Vajiralongkorn's intervention—and the determination it reveals to resist relatively small checks on royal power—is both a snub to the junta and a worry for democrats, some of whom had dared hope that the new king might be happy to take a back seat in public life.

   • 2022 November 25, Daniel Boffey, “Putin’s grip on regional allies loosens again after Armenia snub”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:

     The snub from a traditional ally to Putin, who had hosted an inconsequential meeting of the warring countries’ leaders last month, comes immediately on the back of his disastrous summit with six former Soviet states.

2. A sudden checking of a cable or rope.
3. (obsolete) A knot; a protuberance; a snag.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 7:

     [A club] with ragged snubs and knotty grain.

Derived terms

• give someone the snub
• snubbing post, snub post
• snub line

Translations

deliberate affront or slight

• Catalan: desdeny (ca) m, menyspreu (ca) m, menysteniment m, desconsideració f
• Czech: přehlížení n, shození n, urážka (cs) f
• Danish: fornærmelse c
• Dutch: bruuskeren (nl), sneer (nl) f
• Finnish: solvaus (fi)
• French: camouflet (fr) m
• German: Brüskierung f, Affront (de) m
• Italian: affronto (it) m, mancanza di rispetto f
• Maori: pī, whakamanioro, tokoreko
• Persian: بی توجهی
• Polish: awania f (dated), obraza (pl) f
• Russian: пренебрежи́тельное обхожде́ние n (prenebrežítelʹnoje obxoždénije)
• Spanish: desaire (es) m

A sudden checking of a cable or rope

• Dutch: ruk (nl) m

Verb

snub (third-person singular simple present snubs, present participle snubbing, simple past and past participle snubbed)

1. (transitive) To slight, ignore or behave coldly toward someone.
   • 1876, Anthony Trollope, The Prime Minister. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC:

     When, therefore, the First Secretary sounded him as to the expediency of some step in the direction of a firmer political combination than that at present existing,—by which of course was meant the dethronement of the present Prime Minister,—Mr. Roby had snubbed him!

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:

     For near three mortal months have you trifled with my feelings, eluded me, and snubbed me; and I won’t stand it!

   • 1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

     Lily was sure that within twenty-four hours the story of her visiting her dress-maker at the Benedick would be in active circulation among Mr. Rosedale’s acquaintances. The worst of it was that she had always snubbed and ignored him.

   • 1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     For a long time he lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor, and no one thought very much about him. He was naturally shy, and being only made of velveteen, some of the more expensive toys quite snubbed him.

2. (transitive) To turn down insultingly; to dismiss.

   He snubbed my offer of help.

3. (transitive) To check; to reprimand.
4. (transitive) To stub out (a cigarette etc).
5. (transitive) To halt the movement of a rope etc by turning it about a cleat or bollard etc; to secure a vessel in this manner.
6. (transitive) To clip or break off the end of; to check or stunt the growth of.

Synonyms

• (to slight or ignore): give someone the cold shoulder, turn the cold shoulder on someone, cut someone cold, cut someone dead

Translations

to slight, ignore, behave coldly toward

• Arabic:

  Gulf Arabic: حقر (ḥigar)

• Catalan: desdenyar (ca), menyspreuar, menystenir (ca), desconsiderar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: ignorovat (cs), přehlížet impf, přezírat impf, odmítnout (cs) pf, zasklít pf
• Esperanto: malakcepti
• Finnish: vähätellä (fi), sivuuttaa (fi)
• French: snober (fr)
• German: brüskieren (de), jemanden vor den Kopf stoßen
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: tokoreko, pī
• Russian: пренебрежительно (prenebrežitelʹno) обходи́ться (obxodítʹsja) (prenebrežítelʹno obxodítʹsja) (с (s) + instrumental case)
• Spanish: desairar (es), hacer un feo
• Swedish: avfärda (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can

to turn down, dismiss

• Czech: shodit (cs) pf, usadit (cs) pf
• Finnish: torjua (fi)
• French: snober (fr)
• German: ablehnen (de), abtun (de), ausschlagen (offer)
• Maori: whakahoe
• Swedish: avfärda (sv)

to stub out

• Finnish: tumpata (fi)
• Russian: погаси́ть (ru) (pogasítʹ)

to halt the movement of a rope etc.

Etymology 2

From Middle English snubben, snobben (“to sob”). Compare Dutch snuiven (“to snort, to pant”), German schnauben, German dialect schnupfen (“to sob”), and English snuff (transitive verb).

Verb

snub (third-person singular simple present snubs, present participle snubbing, simple past and past participle snubbed)

1. To sob with convulsions.
   • 1621, Thomas Bedford, The Sinne Vnto Death:

     He striveth, strugleth, roareth, sobbeth, snubbeth, and ready he is to burst for anger.

Anagrams

• Buns, buns, nubs