snug

From dialectal English snug (“tight, handsome”), perhaps from Old Norse snøggr, from Proto-Germanic *snawwuz (“short, quick, fast”). Compare Icelandic snöggur (“smooth”), Danish snög (“neat”), Swedish snygg (“handsome, nice-looking”).

• enPR: snŭg, IPA^(key): /snʌɡ/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ʌɡ

snug (comparative snugger, superlative snuggest)

1. Warm and comfortable; cosy.

   Synonyms: comfy, cosy, cushy, gemütlich

   I felt snug tucked up in my snug bed.

   • 1848 April – 1849 October, E[dward] Bulwer-Lytton, chapter I, in The Caxtons: A Family Picture, volume II, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1849, →OCLC, part IX, page 88:

     Now, if in a stage coach in the depth of winter, when three passengers are warm and snug, a fourth, all besnowed and frozen, descends from the outside and takes place amongst them, straightway all the three passengers shift their places, uneasily pull up their cloak collars, re-arrange their "comforters," feel indignantly a sensible loss of caloric—the intruder has at least made a sensation.

   • 1853, Melville, Herman, Bartleby, the Scrivener, in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories, New York: Penguin Books, 1968; reprint 1995 as Bartleby, →ISBN, page 2:

     I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause; but, in the cool tranquillity of a snug retreat, do a snug business among rich men's bonds, and mortgages, and title-deeds.

2. Satisfactory.

   Synonyms: acceptable, good enough; see also Thesaurus:satisfactory

   • 1853, Melville, Herman, Bartleby, the Scrivener, in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories, New York: Penguin Books, 1968; reprint 1995 as Bartleby, →ISBN, page 2:

     I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause; but, in the cool tranquillity of a snug retreat, do a snug business among rich men's bonds, and mortgages, and title-deeds.

3. Close-fitting.

   Synonyms: clingy, figure-hugging, form-fitting; see also Thesaurus:close-fitting

   • 2021 April 23, Brad Linder, “PinePhone keyboard prototype transforms the Linux phone into a tiny Linux laptop”, in Linux Smartphones‎:

     [I]t does make it clear that adding the keyboard case to the PinePhone will more than double the thickness. You may still be able to slide the whole thing into your pocket, but it’s likely to be more of a snug fit than when using the phone on its own.

4. Close; concealed; not exposed to notice.

   Synonyms: concealed, covered, tect; see also Thesaurus:hidden

   • 1733, [Jonathan Swift], On Poetry: A Rapsody, Dublin, London: […] [R. Fleming] [a]nd sold by J. Huggonson, […], →OCLC, page 9, lines 116–117:

     Be ſure at Will’s the following Day, / Lie ſnug, and hear what Criticks ſay.

snug (plural snugs)

1. (British) A small, comfortable back room in a pub.
2. (engineering) A lug.

snug (third-person singular simple present snugs, present participle snugging, simple past and past participle snugged)

1. (transitive) To make secure or snug.
   • 1967 May, William F. Nolan, George Clayton Johnson, Logan's Run, Bantam, published 1976, →ISBN, page 15:

     He snugged his Gun into its tunic holster, checked the scope on his Follower and left the room.

2. To snuggle or nestle.
3. (transitive) To make smooth.

• Ngus, Sung, Ungs, gnus, guns, nugs, sung