snape

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /sneɪp/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -eɪp

Origin obscure. Perhaps from snape, a dialectal variant of sneap (“to nip, bite, pinch”). More at sneap.

snape (third-person singular simple present snapes, present participle snaping, simple past and past participle snaped)

1. (nautical, shipbuilding) To bevel the end of a timber to fit against an inclined surface.
   • 2000, William L. Crothers, The American-built Clipper Ship, 1850-1856, International Marine, page 265:

     It had to be accurately cut and trimmed, and its upper edge scored to suit the snaping of every beam end.

From Middle English snaipen (“to injure; of sleet or snow: to nip; to criticize, rebuke, revile”) [and other forms],[1] from Old Norse sneypa (“to disgrace, dishonour; to outrage”),[2] from Proto-Germanic *snupaną, *snubaną (“to cut; to snap”); further origin unknown. Doublet of sneap.

snape (third-person singular simple present snapes, present participle snaping, simple past and past participle snaped) (archaic or British, dialectal)

1. (transitive)
   1. To check or curtail (the growth of something); also, to check or curtail the growth of (a plant, etc.).
   2. Synonym of sneap (“to check or abruptly reprove (someone); to chide, to rebuke, to reprimand”)
      • 1861, Terry A. Johnston, Him on One Side and Me on the Other, Univ. of South Carolina Press, p48, 1999 (quoting Alexander Campbell)

        The colnel (sic) I dont think like him much. I undirstand (sic) he was always snaping him.

2. (intransitive) To chide, to rebuke, to reprimand.
   • 1871, John Esten Cooke, Out of the Foam:

     He saw nothing, heard nothing, rushed on, he knew not whither, snaping, and uttering hoarse cries.

   • 2001, Joan Raphael-Leff, Pregnancy: The Inside Story, Karnac Books, page 22:

     I imagine her prodding my flab and snaping, "There's nothing there — get rid of that!"

• Aspen, NAPEs, Panes, Spean, aspen, napes, neaps, panes, peans, sneap, spane, spean

• snaip, snaipen

From Old Norse sneypa (“to outrage, dishonor, disgrace”).

snape (third-person singular simple present snapeth, present participle snapende, snapynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle snaped)

1. To injure; of snow or sleet: nip, afflict
   • Þe snawe snitered ful snart, þat snayped þe wylde. — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, c1400
   • Ilke a barne in þe burgh all blaught is hys wedes Als any snappand snaw. — Wars of Alexander, 1500
2. To rebuke; revile, criticize
   • Vte of desert þar he was in, He com to snaip þe king sinn. — Cursor Mundi, 1400
   • To Snape: corripere — Catholicon Anglicum, 1483

• snapli (“sharply, bitingly; reproachfully”)

Middle English Dictionary, snaipen, snaip, snape