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snivel

[sniv-uhl] / ˈsnɪv əl /
VERB
complain
Synonyms




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

And I whine a little bit and moan and snivel, and that works.

From New York Times Jun. 28, 2021

Deny your partner a Facebook or Twitter account if you want, but don't snivel when people are swirling their fingers round their ears at talk of your name.

From The Guardian Jul. 8, 2011

It is a question of audience psychology, of knowing what will make the playgoing mass guffaw, snivel, clap its hands.

From Time Magazine Archive

Basketball's all-time biggest draw retires to the golf links, the second-rate wannabes he turned into multimillionaires snivel about their economic hardship, and the league still finds ways to fill the tent.

From Time Magazine Archive

I snivel and sniff and give a weak nod.

From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau

Zachary Quinto snivels in prime form as the insecure son of Niagara, and Pearce’s screenplay saves some of its sharpest stuff for their less-than-idyllic relationship.

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 8, 2018

Yet another former South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, was described with “sweats, snivels and tears all over his face.”

From The New Yorker May 14, 2017

Bruno becomes more interesting, she grows less so, and still she snivels at center stage, whining about her bad luck and mistreatment.

From New York Times Mar. 19, 2015

"Oh, Nick," she snivels with self-pity, "it takes so long to have a baby, you forget what made it seem like a good idea in the first place."

From Time Magazine Archive

He snivels and squints into the distance, searching the stony brown hills.

From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell

"You know what, I, I, I, find that ludicrous. But if it's the case, maybe you'll win a Pulitzer for that," he sniveled.

From Salon May 9, 2022

In a surprisingly involved moment, the character cowered and sniveled as the desire for vengeance coursed through me.

From Slate Feb. 23, 2010

He sniveled: "S'elp me, Hi honly done it to sive a few bob t'buy warm clothes for me wife an' child!"

From Time Magazine Archive

“A lot of good that does me,” the C.I.D. man sniveled.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

He sniveled, crying in a way that hadn’t been acceptable since he was a real little kid.

From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles

"I didn't realise what I'd done," Tabloid Wayne snivelled to shock Richard Keys and jock Andy Gray in reference to that post-West Ham swearing ballyhoo that folks keep banging on about.

From The Guardian Apr. 13, 2011

“Dear child,” said Mrs. White, and she snivelled again.

From By the Light of the Soul A Novel by Harold M. Brett

The fellow would not understand; he snivelled obstinately, and struggled aimlessly in Acton's grasp.

From Acton's Feud A Public School Story by Frederick Swainson

The little ones snivelled as though they were going into danger.

From Marie Claire by John N. Raphael

"Bless you, Mrs. Burnett!" snivelled the Baron, not ashamed of dabbing his eyes with his kerchief.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, December 24, 1892 by Sir F. C. (Francis Cowley) Burnand

Those sequences are so terrifying because you're reduced to this sniveling child character, and it felt different from the types of characters that we usually see you play, which are so headstrong and confident.

From Salon Feb. 20, 2025

Um, it might be the last debate before the Iowa caucuses — it is worth your time, even if you just stoop to name-calling like, “begone you sniveling weasel.”

From Washington Times Dec. 6, 2023

Albee caricatures the foppishly professorial Fam as sniveling, ingratiating and insincere.

From Los Angeles Times Dec. 7, 2022

Its “sounds,” she writes, are those “of the busying and tidying of the quietly controlling. The sniveling and whimpering of the long overlooked, the caterwaul of the brokenhearted.”

From Washington Post Apr. 21, 2020

“Hey,” I said, and my voice sounded like a sniveling baby.

From "Wish" by Barbara O'Connor

When they are named and shamed they diminish in size from terrifying giants to snivelling slugs.

From The Guardian Jun. 28, 2015

It would be hard for Bob to see through that façade to the shy, mousy-haired, snivelling idiot she’d been at fourteen.

From The New Yorker Dec. 12, 2011

The screen faded to black, ending in silence, no titles and a lot of viewers like me offering to make the post-Corrie cuppa and snivelling by themselves in the kitchen.

From The Guardian Dec. 3, 2010

The sullen, steel-grey sky seems to be permanently snivelling sleet.

From BBC Feb. 6, 2010

It was very quiet again, except for Hooper, snivelling, and the sound of the water.

From "I'm the King of the Castle" by Susan Hill




Vocabulary lists containing snivel


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