Link Centre Dictionary

snide

UK/snaɪd/ US/ˈsnaɪd/ uncommon

adjective

1.

expressive of contempt

  • “curled his lip in a supercilious smile”
  • “spoke in a sneering jeering manner”
  • “makes many a sharp comparison but never a mean or snide one”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

Probably from a dialectal variant of snithe (“sharp, cutting, cold”). See snithe (adjective). Alternatively, possibly a metathetic corruption of Middle English snythand (“piercing (the heart), cold, biting”, literally and figuratively). More at snithe (verb). Compare typologically cutting, Russian ко́лкий (kólkij) (akin to коло́ть (kolótʹ)).

Phrases

  • snide pitcher

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.