or sneakbill, sneaksbill, subs. (old).—A sneak: cf. IDLESBY, SURESBY, RUDESBY, LEWDSBY, WIGSBY, &c. (GROSE). Also SNEAKING (B. E.) = ‘sheepish or mean spirited’; SNEAKBILL (adj.) = sneaking.
1577. T. KENDALL, Flowers of Epigrammes, 9.
| Perchaunce thou deemst me in thy minde, | |
| Therefore a SNEEK BILL, snudge vnkinde. |
1611. COTGRAVE, Dictionarie [HALLIWELL]. A checheface, mecher, SNEAKEBILL, wretched fellow, one out of whose nose hunger drops. Ibid. A meacocke, milkesop, SNEAKSBIE, worthlesse fellow.
1651. CARTWRIGHT, The Ordinary, iii. 2.
| A base thin-jaw’d SNEAKSBILL, | |
| Thus to work gallants out of all. |
1653. URQUHART, Rabelais, I. xxv. Scurvy SNEAKSBIES, fondling fops, base loons.
1685. BARROW, Sermons, III. xxxiv. A demure SNEAKSBY, a clownish singularist.
