snideadj.n.

1859 G. W. Matsell Vocabulum 83 Snide stuff, bad money.

1861 J. Clay Prison Chaplain viii. 537 The observant and experienced E.R. says ‘The utterers of “Snide pewter” (base silver) are almost all Irish.’

1862 Cornhill Mag. Nov. 652 [To] get ready for the trial, and look up the ‘snyde witnesses’.

1868 Temple Bar 24 538 Snyde..means counterfeit or bad.

1887 F. Francis Saddle & Mocassin i. 3 These here men don't want none of your..snide outfits, but jest good bronchos and a waggon, and strong harness.

1887 Lantern (New Orleans) 9 Apr. 2/3 Who runs dat snide hash house.

1893 Advance (Chicago) 5 Oct. When stripped of their gay apparel..the most of them were very snide religions.

1894 J. N. Maskelyne ‘Sharps & Flats’ 309 A holdout in the vest is more use than snide jewelry in the pocket.

1899 ‘J. Flynt’ Tramping with Tramps ii. 277 Utica..is sort of a snide place, this time of the year.

1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xiv. 180 'Tain't ther liquor wot's snide, it's ther dead hookity hides what it gets chuted into.

1926 J. Black You can't Win vi. 65 ‘This is a pretty snide jungle,’ he said, ‘no cans.’

1973 ‘J. Patrick’ Glasgow Gang Observed 235 Snide ‘boggin’: used in phrase ‘snide gear’, i.e. clothes that are out of fashion, contemptible, inferior.

1883 E. J. Milliken Childe Chappie's Pilgrimage ii. 15 They self-deemed astute and ‘snide’, Of nous bereft, low chaff the bar-queen golden dyed.

1889 Cent. Dict. 5730/3 Snide,..sharp; characterized by low cunning and sharp practice.

1950 P. Tempest Lag's Lexicon 193 ‘He's a “snide” so-and-so’ = he's a slippery customer.

1933 Notes & Queries 14 Oct. 261/2 Our snide way of saying it was cheap, false, and counterfeit.

1939 Sun (Baltimore) 15 Apr. 8/1 Snide trick. Any reprehensible bills..enacted in secrecy at a session of the Legislature are bound to come to the surface after the State's lawmakers have left Annapolis.

1943 Sun (Baltimore) 22 Apr. 30/6 It was a horrifying thing..to hear the President..making a snide attack against a group of Americans instead of defending America.

1954 M. Davenport My Brother's Keeper 182 She lived in a tenement..and she would fill the whole neighbourhood with snide gossip.

1961 J. Heller Catch-22 (1962) x. 103 Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen was a snide little punk who enjoyed working at cross-purposes.

1978 G. Greene Human Factor vi. ii. 318 Next day when Ivan made his snide references to ‘gratitude’ he broke furiously out: ‘You call this gratitude.’

1981 Maledicta 5 123 He..curses a great deal and writes snide letters to careless authors.

1885 Lisbon (Dakota Territory) Star 27 Mar. 5 They pass by the jewels and take ‘the snide’, for that is all they know.

1887 Times 22 Dec. 14/2 Witness caught hold of Clark and said ‘Bill, I think you have a little snide (base coin) on you’.

1874 Hotten's Slang Dict. (rev. ed.) 299 ‘He's a snide,’ though this seems but a contraction of snide 'un.

1883 J. Hay Bread-winners xix. 297 ‘I am right glad I got here to save you from that—’ he paused, searching for a word which would be descriptive and yet not improper in the presence of a lady,..‘that snide.’

1919 Dial. Notes 5 67 That fellow is a snide, do not trust him.

1935 W. H. Auden & C. Isherwood Dog beneath Skin ii. iii. 99 Young Waters is playing too. He's no snyde at the game.

1972 L. Henderson Cage until Tame xii. 103 Tolly's not a snide, he's better than most, and he's been bloody unlucky.

1902 G. H. Lorimer Lett. Merchant vii. 90 Courtesy without condescension,..simplicity without snide.

1966 New Statesman 8 Apr. 499/2 She analysed..the nasty state of affairs on the gossip beat. The result was spectacular—some of the popular papers changed the titles of their columns, keyhole snide was banned, [etc.].

1956 D. Karp All Honorable Men 39 I drew aside the people from Time and asked them if they were going to treat the Institute snidely or soberly.

1961 ‘B. Wells’ Day Earth caught Fire viii. 119 ‘If you're right this means no private water at all.’ ‘Correct,’ said Pete snidely. ‘Just turn on the taps and hear the rude noise of progress.’

1975 Country Life 30 Oct. 1160/1 I have often snidely remarked, that the flowers on each spike are not half of them opened before the first are already brown.

1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §317/1 Treachery…snideness.

1965 P. Wylie They both were Naked i. ii. 92 I was ‘in’…by great good luck and the use of some small snideness.

1953 Britannica Bk. of Year 639/2 Snidery,..hypocrisy, pretence.

1967 Punch 8 Nov. 697/2 Those sardonic snideries which come too readily to one's lips.

1969 Daily Tel. 24 Apr. 21/5 The snidery of the humour may escape those playgoers who cannot look at it with fairly Irish eyes.

1978 A. Noakes William Frith iv. 68 Frith's success with Derby Day..sparked off some ill-tempered snideries.