Also 4 snube, 5–6 snubbe, 7 snubb. [a. ON. snubba (MSw. snubba, snobba), recorded in sense 1; mod. Norw. and Sw. dial. snubba, Da. snubbe, have also the sense of cutting short, making stumpy, etc. See also SNIB v.1]
1. trans. To check, reprove, or rebuke in a sharp or cutting manner; in later use, to treat or receive (a person, suggestion, etc.) in a way calculated to repress or mortify.
(a) a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter lviii. 17. They sal snube [v.r. snyb] þaim, þat will not be converted.
1483. Cath. Angl., 347/2. To Snubbe.
1570. Levins, Manip., 181. To Snubbe, arguere, culpare.
a. 1610. Babington, Wks. (1622), 48. We see the great … goodnesse of God,… neuer snubbing any child of his for imperfection of faith.
1676. Etheredge, Man of Mode, III. ii. Do not you fall on him, Medley, and snub him. Sooth him up in his extravagance!
1727. De Foe, Protestant Monastery, 6. When they see the Son curbing the Father, or the Daughter snubbing the Mother.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, V. 9. I often snub Hal … for fear of his getting out of my hands.
1835. Marryat, J. Faithful, xv. Mr. Turnbull occasionally throwing in a word, and each time snubbed by his wife.
1882. B. D. W. Ramsay, Rough Recoll., I. viii. 187. I ventured to address him, and was most decidedly snubbed.
fig. 1620. Sanderson, Serm., I. 146. The force of natural conscience … will be sometimes snubbing, and singing, and lashing, and vexing him.
(b) 1861. ‘Holme Lee,’ Warp & Woof, I. 30. Ursula … snubbed it as she would have snubbed any plan that did not originate with herself.
1882. in R. Geog. Soc. Suppl. Papers, I. I. 117. The stream now … runs in rock-strewn whirls and races which snub any question about its navigability.
1891. Spectator, 2 May, 610/1. But nothing could be more foolish than to snub voluntary effort to which our present system of education owes so much.
b. absol. To employ snubbing; † to scold.
1694. Congreve, Double-Dealer, III. vi. I acquiesce, my Lady, but don’t snub so loud.
1787. [see SNUBBEE].
1861. Sat. Rev., 14 Sept., 269. But there need be nothing cruel in the man who snubs.
1907. Blackw. Mag., Nov., 678/1. The power to snub is a weapon of defence.
† c. To take up sharply or severely; to order about in a sharp fashion. Obs.
1672. Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.), Rehearsal, IV. i. (Arb.), 95. A fierce Hero, that frights his Mistriss, snubs up Kings,… and does what he will.
1711. Shaftesbury, Charac. (1737), III. Misc. V. ii. 271. To censure merely what another Person writes, to twitch, snap, snub up, or banter.
a. 1797. Mary Wollstonecr., Posth. Wks. (1798), I. 160. She did not like to go to service, to be snubbed about, after being her own mistress.
2. † a. To check or restrain (a thing); to prevent from having free course or development. Obs.
1583. Babington, Commandm. (1590), 251. Euery Christian is to take heede … to snub the course of Sathan at the first. Ibid. (1592), Notes Genesis xxxviii. § 8. 151. Beware we then euer of discontent, and snubbe it betimes.
a. 1624. Bp. M. Smith, Serm., 186. Wisedome … snubbeth and crosseth all vnlawfull designes.
a. 1688. Bunyan, Christ a Compl. Saviour, Wks. 1853, I. 217. He is holy, and so will snub their lusts.
b. Naut. and U.S. To check or stop (a rope or cable) suddenly while running out; to stop or bring up (a boat, etc.) sharply or suddenly, esp. by passing a rope round a post; to fasten or tie (up).
(a) 1841. R. H. Dana, Seaman’s Man., 124. Snub, to check a rope suddenly.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Snubbing her. Bringing a ship up suddenly with an anchor.
1887. F. Hopkinson Smith & J. B. Millet, in Century Mag., Aug., 483/2. A deck-hand forward to ‘snub’ her in the locks and take a line to the tow-path.
(b) 1888. T. Roosevelt, in Century Mag., March, 660/1. He is taught this by being violently snubbed up, probably turning a somersault, the first two or three times that he feels the noose settle round his neck.
1895. F. C. Read, in Outing, XXVII. 224/1. I kept him snubbed up too closely for him to get a start.
1903. A. Adams, Log Cowboy, x. 153. We took a guy line from the wagon and snubbed it to a tree.
3. To check the growth of; to shorten; to cut, nip, or break off, the end of (a thing). Now rare.
1615. W. Lawson, Country Housew. Garden (1626), 35. Either snub his top with a nip betwixt your finger and your thumb, or with a sharpe knife.
1641. H. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 77. The yeere was (as yett) but younge, and the field indifferent good, and not much snubbed.
1704. Ray, Creation, I. (ed. 4), 96. The Trees … whose Heads and Boughs I have observ’d … to be so snub’d by the Winds, as if their Boughs and Leaves had been par’d or shaven off on that side.
1831. Jane Porter, Sir E. Seaward’s Narr., I. 161. I therefore hung the handkerchief on the branch of a tree, that I snubbed off short for the purpose.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., 136. You should ha’ putten some salt on, it would ha’ snubbed them [sc. weeds] anyhow.
b. To make snub-nosed or snub.
1796. Mod. Gulliver’s Trav., 186. Get snubb’d i’ th’ nose—or haply singe our beards.
† 4. To cheat or defraud. Obs.
1694. Echard, Plautus, 93. For th’ old Men ha’ now open’d a Passage for my Tricks to make Incursions, and snub ’em o’ their Mony.
5. intr. To press bluntly.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, I. xiv. 109. They laughed and snubbed their handkerchiefs to their noses.
1846. in Thornton, Amer. Gloss. (1912), s.v., I felt the cold nose of the captain of the band [of sharks] snubbing against my side.
Hence Snubbable a. (Cf. UNSNUBBABLE a.)
1908. L. A. Tollemache, Old & Odd Mem., 130. So wholesomely snubbable as just to stop short of being bores.
