subs. (old).—1. A share; a piece; a SNACK (q.v.). TO GO SNIPS = to share. Hence 2, (racing) = a good tip. Also SNIPPET = a small piece; SNIPPY (or SNIPPETY) = fragmentary, absurdly small.
1621. SYLVESTER, Du Bartas, ii. Her lips two SNIPS of crimsin Sattin are.
c. 1640. BUTLER, On Philip Nye’s Thanksgiving Beard, 93.
| For some have doubted if [the beard] ’twere made of SNIPS | |
| Of sables, glew’d and fitted to the lips. |
1668. DRYDEN, An Evening’s Love, v. Mask. Pray, Sir, let me GO SNIP with you in this Lye.
1694. SIR R. L’ESTRANGE, Fables, 429. The SNIP that he himself Expected upon the Dividend.
1725. N. BAILEY, trans. The Colloquies of Erasmus, II. 5. The Gamester … promises I shall GO SNIPS with him in what he shall win.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas (1812), VII. xii. Let me know what is the business, and I promise you shall get some SNIPS out of the minister.
1880. Chicago Times, 9 April. Variety is pleasant, SNIPPETINESS is not.
1884. The Saturday Review, 12 Jan., 62. If the editor had confined himself to one period he might have made a useful book … he has produced a collection of SNIPPETS.
1886–96. MARSHALL, ‘Pomes’ [‘The Age of Love’], 26. He’s the winner right enough! It’s the one sole SNIP of a lifetime—simply the cop of one’s puff.
3. (common).—A tailor: also SNIPPER, SNIP-CABBAGE, and SNIPLOUSE (BEE). Cf. SNIPPERADO, quot. 1605, SNIPES = scissors (VAUX). See TRADES.
1600. The Weakest goeth to the Wall, i. 3. Beest thou a snyder? SNIP, snap, mette shears.
1605. CHAPMAN [B. DOBELL, on Newly Discovered Documents of the Elizabethan and Jacobean Periods (Athenæum, 13 April, 1901, 466, 1)]. Taylors and Shoo-makers, and such SNIPPERADOS.
1643. RANDOLPH, The Muse’s Looking-Glass, iv. 2.
| Luparus. Where’s my wife? | |
| Colax. She’s gone with a young SNIP, and an old bawd. | |
| Ibid., iv. 3. | |
| Sir, here’s SNIP the taylor | |
| Charg’d with a riot. |
1684. DRYDEN, The History of the League, Postscript. Our SNIPPERS go over once a year into France, to bring back the newest mode, and to learn to cut and shape it.
1709. WARD, Terræ Filius [Works, i. 5, 35]. Poor Crespin was laugh’d at thro’ the whole parish,… and the Gentleman and yonder SNIP-CABBAGE his Taylor, commended for their Ingenuity.
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 529.
| But yet he swears, though hard put to’t, | |
| Like SNIP the taylor with his suit, | |
| He’d find some way to piece it out. |
1849. C. KINGSLEY, Alton Locke, xiii. Alton, you fool, why did you let out that you were a SNIP?
1852. BRISTED, Five Years in an English University, 292, Note. A fashionable SNIP … ‘breeches-maker to H.R.H. Prince Albert.’
1898. BINSTEAD, A Pink ’Un and a Pelican, 153. Mr Commissioner Kerr … once informed a SNIP … that there was no such thing as taking credit.
