| 释义 |
sneak-
the n. or verb-stem used in combs., as sneak-boat U.S., a boat by which one may readily move or approach unobserved; esp. a sneak-box; sneak-box U.S., a small, flat, shallow boat used in wild-fowl shooting, and when in use masked with brush or weeds; sneak-current Electr., current which escapes or strays owing to leakage or imperfect insulation; sneak-guest, one who makes public the events of private social gatherings at which he is a guest; sneak-hunting, hunting from an unobserved approach; sneak-pasty a., insidious, sneaky; sneak preview orig. U.S., a showing of a (usually unnamed) cinematic film prior to regular release, to test audience reaction; also transf. and fig.; hence sneak-preview v. trans., (a) to show (a film) in a sneak preview; (b) to have a sneak preview of (something); sneak-shooting, the shooting of wild-fowl from a sneak-boat (Cent. Dict.); sneak-thief (orig. U.S.), one who steals or thieves by sneaking into houses through open or unfastened doors or windows; also, a pickpocket, a snatch-thief; also attrib.; hence sneak-thief vb. trans. (nonce-wd.); sneak-thiefery, sneak-thievery; sneak-thieving vbl. n.
1853Laws General Assembly of Maryland 220 Any person or persons [who] shall use any sink boats, *sneak boats or floats,..shall be subject to a fine. 1882D. Kemp Yacht Sailing xvi. (1884) 258 The home of the sneak-boat, or sneak box, or devil's coffin, as the contrivance is indifferently termed, is Barnegat Bay. 1889Bucknill Submarine Mines 232 The Howell [torpedo]..is inferior only as an arm for a sneak boat, or for a vessel attempting to run a blockade.
1879N. H. Bishop 4 Months in a Sneak-Box (1880) 1 The comical-looking..Barnegat *sneak-box, or duck-boat. 1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 826/2 The New Jersey sneak box is from 12′ to 14′ in length.
1899K. B. Miller Amer. Telephone Practice xxiii. 275 It frequently happens..that a very small current..will not be sufficient to blow the fuse... These currents are very appropriately termed ‘*sneak currents’. 1934A. L. Albert Electr. Commun. xii. 325 Currents slightly in excess of the normal operating values..are often called ‘sneak’ currents.
1930Times Lit. Suppl. 9 Jan. 18/1 Creevey..was in fact (if a very modern term may be forgiven because it is so apt) a ‘*sneak-guest’. 1958Listener 18 Dec. 1045/1 He [sc. Boswell] was regarded in society as something of a ‘sneak guest’.
1878E. B. Tuttle Border Tales 45 By *sneak⁓hunting, one man can kill a whole band of elk. 1980Outdoor Life (U.S.) (Northeast ed.) Oct. 84/3 Sneak hunting is a difficult and time-consuming sport.
1681T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 15 (1713) I. 101 Some creeping *Sneakpasty Schismatick would have informed against you.
1938Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 28 Nov. 1/6 A double⁓barreled, two-blizzard ‘*sneak’ pre-view of the 1938 edition of winter. 1939Chambers's Jrnl. Nov. 858/1 In America, pre-views, frequently called ‘sneak pre-views’, have always been allowed. 1949Sun (Baltimore) 28 Jan. 13/4 (Advt.), Sneak preview—tonight at 11.40 p.m. Even though the producers say we mustn't tell—we can hint it's..one of the funniest comedies you've ever seen! 1950Ibid. 14 Sept. 16/1 The film was sneak-previewed in Hollywood. 1952Art Digest 15 Sept. 5/1 Sneak Preview. On the theory that our readers like to know in advance about important art events, we summarize..the 1952–53 season. 1960Sunday Express 18 Dec. 9/3 Paris-bound passengers were given a sneak preview of Britain's ‘pennyfarthing’ airliner, the Vickers Vanguard. 1972Guardian 24 May 13/7 The old-established Oregon primary..served as a sneak preview of the multimillion dollar Californian entertainment. 1975New Yorker 22 Dec. 31/2 Our pal..delights in opportunities to see things in advance, so he was easily persuaded last week to accept our invitation to sneak-preview the new open-air observation platform twelve feet above the roof. 1980Times Lit. Suppl. 12 Sept. 990/2 This selection brings together poems from all five of her [sc. P. Beer's] published collections, plus a satisfying sneak preview of what one hopes will be her sixth.
1859G. W. Matsell Vocabulum 82 *Sneak⁓thief, a fellow who sneaks into areas, basement-doors or windows, or through front doors by means of latch-keys, and entering the various apartments, steals any thing he can carry off. 1866Harper's Mag. Nov. 690/1 A female ‘sneak thief’ and a 'longshoreman now appear. 1877Talmage Serm. 58 The meanest sneak-thief that comes up..at the Tomb Court. a1930D. H. Lawrence Last Poems (1932) 100 That is why business seems to me despicable, and most love-affairs, just sneak-thief pocket-picking of dressed-up people. Ibid. 242 The jixery perhaps never picked a man's pocket But my god, they sneak-thiefed his very genitals away from him. 1959M. Cumberland Murmurs in Rue Morgue xix. 117 He is the sneak-thief type and the petty blackmailer. 1976Liverpool Echo 6 Dec. 7/9 Wrexham Police to-day warned shoppers to be on the lookout for sneak thieves after a woman shopping in a chemist shop in the town had {pstlg}200 stolen from her bag.
1923*Sneak-thiefery [see gangsterdom]. 1963V. Gielgud Goggle-Box Affair xvii. 177 Nothing else was taken, so it wasn't just *sneak-thievery. 1973E. Berckman Victorian Album 82 So there I was, practising deceit on Christabel and sneak-thievery on Mrs Rumbold.
1884Cent. Mag. Mar. 653/2 The offences are nearly all trivial, most of them being petty larceny and *sneak-thieving.
b. In misc. other uses, passing into adj.: that acts or is effected by stealth, deceit, or surprise; unexpected.
1938Sun (Baltimore) 19 July 8/3 His ‘sneak hop’ from New York to Ireland terminated successfully. 1943[see fringe n. 2 b]. 1943Sun (Baltimore) 27 Dec. 5/2 A sneak air attack might be attempted by the enemy on Christmas Day. 1944Ann. Reg. 1943 i. 21 The soundness of the air defence..had compelled them to confine themselves largely to ‘sneak’ raids on coastal towns. 1952Sun (Baltimore) 17 June 4/1 The snail-spread sneak disease, bilharzia. 1955Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. 59 The act of theft from the person by stealth is..referred to as a sneak job. 1970[see lead n.2 5 c]. 1971‘L. Black’ Death has Green Fingers ii. 18 Horace was a wonderful sneak photographer. 1976Evening Post (Nottingham) 14 Dec. 11/6 A sneak raider stole {pstlg}740 takings from the Triangle toy shop. |