Now dial. and arch. Also 7 sneep. [Later form of snaip SNAPE v.1]
1. trans. To nip or pinch.
1588–. [see SNEAPED, SNEAPING ppl. adjs.]
1691. Ray, N. C. Words, 65. Herbs and Fruits sneapt with cold weather.
2. To check, repress; to snub, reprove, chide.
1614. Sec. Maiden’s Trag., III. i. Nay I am gon, Ime a man quickly sneapt.
1640. Brome, Antipodes, IV. ix. Doe you sneap me too my Lord?… I had No need to come hither to be sneapt.
1659. Mrs. Hutchinson, Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1846), 391. They set him at light,… and made the poor man retire sneaped to his colonel.
1691. Ray, N. C. Words, 65. Children easily sneaped.
1865. S. Evans, Brother Fabian’s MS., 5. My lord Archbishop sneaps us for our sloth.
1886–. in dial. glossaries, etc. (Lincs., Staffs.).
fig. and transf. 1623. Bp. Hall, Works (1837), V. 141. That we do enough hate our corruptions; when, at our sharpest, we do but gently sneap them.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, III. iii. 18. Life that’s here, When into it the soul doth closely wind, Is often sneep’d by anguish.
Hence Sneaped ppl. a.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 333 (1594), D. To ad a more reioysing to the prime, And giue the sneaped birds more cause to sing.
