| 释义 |
▪ I. sneer, n.|snɪə(r)|
Also 8 snear.
[f. the vb. Cf. NFris. sneer a scornful remark.]
1. An act of sneering; a look or expression implying derision, contempt, or scorn; a disdainful or scornful remark or utterance, esp. one of a covert or indirect nature.
1707Refl. upon Ridicule 107 He is applauded with a Sneer. 1711Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) III. 251 He looks upon Atterbury's Complement as a Snear. 1773Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. iii. i, A sneer at my understanding. 1816J. Scott Vis. Paris (ed. 5) p. xvii, By making this confession I shall incur the sneers of those..who have strong prepossessions and few scruples. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 113 Halifax..answered with a sneer that there was no danger. 1879H. George Progr. & Pov. ii. iii. (1881) 121 Amid the scoffs..and the sneers that stab like knives.
b. Without article: Sneering, scorn.
1791Ld. Auckland Corr. (1861) 396 He speaks even of those who are opposed to his government..without either sneer or acrimony. 1841in Leic. Gloss. (1881) 246 He could not bear To see her treated with such scorn and sneer.
2. Sc. A snort.
Jamieson (1825) also gives ‘the act of inhalation or inspiration by the nostrils’; ‘the act of a horse, when colded, in throwing the mucus from his nostrils’; ‘the hiss of an adder’.
17..Lochmaben Harper in Child Ballads IV. 18/1 When she came to the harper's door, There she gave mony a nicher and sneer.
▪ II. sneer, v.|snɪə(r)|
Also 7 sneare, 7–8 snear.
[prob. of imitative origin. The relation to NFris. (Sylt) sneere to scorn, is not clear.
Apparent examples of snere, snered, and snering occur about 1300 in the E.E. Psalter ii. 4, xxxiv. 16, lxxviii. 4, and lxxix. 7, as renderings of L. irridebit, deriserunt, and derisus; but two of the MSS. have variants swere, swered, swering. The translator was evidently influenced by the OE. glosses bismerað, bismeradon, bismerung, and it is very doubtful whether he was using a word which was really known to him.]
1. intr. Of a horse: To snort. Now dial. † Also trans., to send out with snorts.
1553Douglas' æneid vii. v. 101 With twa sterne stedis..At thair neis thyrles the fyre fast furth snering out. 1607Markham Caval. (1617) vi. 12 If..you doe now and then spirt a little Vinegar into his nostrels,..it will both make him sneare and neese. 1814in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 1115 The colt..scampered off sneering, with his tail on his ‘riggin’. 1878Dickinson Cumbld. Gloss. s.v., If a horse sneers efter he coughs he's nut brokken windit.
b. Sc. Of an animal: To make a twitching movement with the nose.
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 447 On the extrusion of the calf, the first symptom it shews of life is a few gasps.., and then it opens its eyes, and tries to shake its head, and sneer with its nose.
2. To smile scornfully or contemptuously; to express scorn, derision, or disparagement in this way; to speak or write in a manner suggestive or expressive of contempt or disparagement:
a. Const. at a person or thing.
1680H. More Apocal. Apoc. 357 The Wits of this age that are ready to snear and flear at any such profession. a1744Pope (J.), I could be content to be a little sneered at in a line. a1763W. King Polit. & Lit. Anecd. (1819) 20 The French seemed to sneer at this behaviour of the German officers, and looked on them with a kind of contempt. 1814Scott Wav. liv, Flora, observing the Lowland ladies sneer at the comparison, produced some reason to shew that it was not altogether so absurd. 1858Max Müller Chips (1880) III. i. 30 Luther was sneered at because of his little German tracts. 1874L. Stephen Hours Libr. (1892) I. x. 361 Walpole sheltered himself behind..a pension to sneer at the tragi-comedy of life.
b. Without const.
1735Pope Prol. Sat. 202 Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer. 1781Cowper Conversat. 182 The fear Lest fops should censure us, and fools should sneer. 1818Shelley Rosalind 655 Men wondered, and some sneered to see One sow what he could never reap. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. iii. iii, Philosophedom sneers aloud, as if its Necker already triumphed. 1855Thackeray Newcomes i, If authors sneer, it is the critic's business to sneer at them for sneering.
fig.1835L. Hunt Poems (1844) 96 Sneereth the trumpet, and stampeth the drum.
†3. To laugh foolishly or smirkingly; to grin.
1683Wood Life 17 Feb., They..stand silent, while their abbettors sneare and grin. 1695Ibid. 23 Mar., With Mr J. Ecc. at the house next the Half-Moon: two snearing and laughing wo[men]: he sneared and laughed with them. 1705R. Beverley Virginia ii. xviii. (1722) 121 A Fourth would fondly kiss, and paw his Companions, and snear in their Faces, with a Countenance more antick, than any in a Dutch Droll. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 558 Our..Pilot, who had always something or other to say to make us merry, came sneering to me, and told me [etc.].
b. dial. (See quot.)
a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Sneer, to make wry faces, without intention of expressing contempt or insult.
c. Naut. (See quot.)
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v., To ‘make all sneer again’ is to carry canvas to such an extent as to strain the ropes and spars to the utmost.
4. trans. To utter with a sneer or in a sneering tone.
1693Congreve Old Bach. i. iv, I confess I have not been sneering fulsome lyes and nauseous flattery. 1864Tennyson Voyage 78 ‘A ship of fools,’ he sneer'd and wept. 1904A. E. Glover 1000 Miles of Miracle x. (1908) 126 He sneered some contemptuous word.
5. To speak or write of (a person or thing) with scorn, contempt, or disparagement; to deride or decry. Obs. exc. dial.
1707Refl. upon Ridicule 94 When People ridicule and sneer you. 1740–2Richardson Pamela III. 41 Wedlock, which used to be very freely sneered by him. 1755B. Martin Mag. Arts & Sci. 64 Blackmore's Banter on the Philosophers..proved more his own than their Ignorance, when he thus sneers them. a1900in Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., He sneered me shameful.
6. To curl up (the lip) in contempt or scorn. rare.
1775S. J. Pratt Liberal Opin. liii. (1783) II. 136 A pennyworth, sir!—cried the steward, (sneering up his upper-lip, till it touched the tip of his nose..) a pennyworth!
7. To affect in a certain way by sneering; to drive or force by means of sneers or scornful speech or manner:
a. Const. with preps., as from, into, out of.
1737Savage Of Public Spirit 325 Careless of Whispers meant to wound their Name, Nor sneer'd nor brib'd from Virtue into Shame. 1859Habits of Gd. Society vii. 243 Who contradicts us flatly, and sneers us into insignificance. 1867A. J. Wilson Vashti xviii, The world has not sneered it [feminine constancy] entirely out of existence.
refl.1841Thackeray Second Funeral Napoleon iii, It sneaks and bullies and sneers itself into place.
b. Const. with advs., as away or down.
1816Scott Antiq. xii, But dinna ye sneer awa the lad Lovel. 1838Lytton Alice vi. ii, Proclaimed a sublime genius in the same circles which sneer down Voltaire. 1868G. J. Whyte-Melville White Rose xlviii, Very likely they were laughing over his infatuation and sneering her fair fame away. 1868Helps Realmah viii. (1876) 237 Sneering can do a great deal: you can sneer down, at any rate for the moment, truth, honour [etc.].
refl.1847Helps Friends in C. i. iv. 68 He mutters to himself sarcastically, sneering himself up as it were to the attack. |