Also 8 snic. [prob. suggested by SNICK AND SNEE, etc. Connection with SNECK v.2, or with Norw. and Icel. snikka, Sw. dial. snicka, to carve, whittle, is very doubtful.]
1. trans. To cut, snip, clip, nick. Also with off, out.
1728. [De Foe], Street-Robberies Consider’d, 34. Snic, to cut.
1825. Jamieson, Suppl., s.v. Sneck, Snick,… to cut with a sudden stroke of a sharp instrument.
1862. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, lxiii. He began by snicking the corner of her [sc. the doll’s] fool off with nurse’s scissors.
1875. Ure’s Dict. Arts (ed. 7), I. 422. The third case-maker … quickly snicks out, with a pair of scissors, the superfluous cloth at each of the four corners.
b. intr. (Cf. SNICK v.3 2.)
1863. Reade, Hard Cash, III. 22. The heavy scissors were heard snick, snick, snicking all day long.
2. trans. To strike or hit sharply.
1880. Webb, Goethe’s Faust, II. v. 130. But we nick ’em and we snick ’em, Wherever they may stick.
1891. [D. Jordan] (‘Son of Marshes’), On Surrey Hills, v. 158. He … lets drive, or, as he says, ‘snicks him,’ killing him at once.
b. Cricket. To strike (the ball) lightly so that it glances off in the slips or to leg; to obtain (so many runs) in this way.
1880. Daily Telegr., 23 Sept., 3/7. Bates drove him finely for 4, and snicked him another 4.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 8 Aug., 7/1. Lohmann is the new comer, and snicked the first ball he received for 3.
3. colloq. To cut or slip across or along (a road) quickly or sharply.
1883. Pennell-Elmhirst, Cream Leicestersh., 343. The two former jumped an uncompromising piece of timber abreast into the field beyond;… the rest snicked the road for the corner immediately at hand.
