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sneak
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
sneak
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a sneaking admiration (=that you secretly feel, but do not show)
▪ I have always had a sneaking admiration for his music.
a sneaking suspicion (=a small suspicion)
▪ We have a sneaking suspicion they're trying to put together a deal.
sneak preview
▪ a sneak preview of the new fashions for autumn
sneak preview
▪ In this week’s show, we’ll be giving you a sneak preview of Steven Spielberg’s latest film.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
around
▪ The streaming sunlight is just barely sneaking around the edges of these motel-orange drapes.
away
▪ It wasn't even as if she'd be able to sneak away - not with Anna.
▪ Jimmy began to think about how he could sneak away and make his way east.
▪ The boys had said nothing of their plans to their parents, before sneaking away last December 23.
▪ The troopers watched us as though we might sneak away while we did our preflight inspections.
▪ So I tossed him a road-kill, and sneaked away on the other side of the cabin.
back
▪ I rolled out like a ball but sneaked back in on the back seat.
▪ I sneaked back, into the darkness and found Doris and tried to interest myself in the dishes for a while.
▪ Sometimes I imagined that he'd sneaked back into the country and was leading another life.
▪ They played cat and mouse with the Bay, now scrambling for the outside, now sneaking back in.
in
▪ Perhaps they sneaked in, excited, at the back.
▪ Crumb managed to find out where the dancers rehearsed when they were in town and sneaked in to watch them.
▪ But if an intruder does sneak in, all is not necessarily lost.
▪ Musicians were so desperate to hear Michelangeli that they borrowed violin cases and sneaked in through the stage door.
▪ It was cold, too, an icy wind sneaking in through the thatch and through gaps in the mud wall.
▪ I felt like I had sneaked in.
▪ But momentum was the thing - self-doubt came sneaking in as soon as they let up.
▪ During the night, strikers managed to sneak in and out of the building.
off
▪ Their argument can reach such epic proportions that it is sometimes possible to sneak off without paying.
▪ Instead, Wait sneaked off the sub and went back to his quarters and changed into a uniform.
▪ But I still couldn't bear to see him sneaking off with some one else.
▪ What Peg did was to take a bed-sheet from home and sneak off with it.
▪ Contrary to the popular notion, the biggest threat isn't some boy hacker sneaking off with your card number.
▪ And consider it your duty to sneak off early from work.
out
▪ She must have gone to bed some time ago, else Jessie wouldn't have been able to sneak out.
▪ The Little Sprouts sneak out of the house with some extra veggies.
▪ If she'd been sneaking out at night to meet Gabriel, Veronica could have heard her - and seen them.
▪ The star player sneaked out of the house when he was grounded!
▪ I was only the caddie, so I sneaked out.
▪ Perhaps any attempt to sneak out would be a waste of time.
▪ Finally one of the internee chairmen managed to sneak out to issue a protest with the high gendarme officers across town.
through
▪ The Dartford Tunnel was quiet enough for him to sneak through without loss of time.
▪ The sort of plans we were preparing to sneak through would have provided up to half a million extra jobs.
up
▪ Tam had complained earlier about how he was for ever sneaking up on them and poking about while they were building the fence.
▪ Once they found a herd, they sneaked up to within rifle range on foot.
▪ They were trying to sneak up and gain entry without being seen by the shapechanger.
▪ Advertisements are sneaking up on you from at least three new directions.
▪ I imagine it would be virtually impossible to sneak up on an owl.
▪ There was no sneaking up on this man.
▪ Time had sneaked up on us and it was now December.
▪ Deion sneaked up behind the announcer, who was wired for sound, and doused him with ice water.
■ NOUN
glance
▪ She sneaked a glance while Lucy poured tea.
▪ Occasionally they sneak glances at the businessmen -- who look back at them in mutual amazement and fear.
▪ He sneaked a glance at her from beneath his brows, his head still lowered.
▪ Only the men would sneak glances at her, admiring the shapely figure showing in the plain uniform.
house
▪ That night she sneaked out of the house as usual, but this time she was carrying a case.
▪ The Little Sprouts sneak out of the house with some extra veggies.
▪ The star player sneaked out of the house when he was grounded!
▪ It was after midnight when he sneaked into the house.
look
▪ Barton sneaked another look at his copy of Penthouse.
▪ Babur sneaks a look at the policewoman.
▪ After the second last Pitman sneaked another look behind him, and this telegraphed to Brian Fletcher that all was not lost.
▪ Just before we left, I raised up to straighten my coat and sneaked a look at the McLaren girl.
▪ I sneaked a look at my medical report; slow heartbeat, low metabolism.
▪ I sneaked a look behind as we went off in a cloud of dust.
▪ The chairman sneaks a look at some of the messages on Doreen's card.
▪ From the fence I surveyed the area, sneaking a look to see if Shelly was lying in the window.
■ VERB
manage
▪ The next day I had just managed to sneak home and hide when Death arrived.
▪ During the night, strikers managed to sneak in and out of the building.
▪ Finally one of the internee chairmen managed to sneak out to issue a protest with the high gendarme officers across town.
try
▪ They were trying to sneak up and gain entry without being seen by the shapechanger.
▪ Bright white shoes and bags tried sneaking into the fashion picture last spring but never made it.
▪ Was this his way of paying her back for trying to sneak Kirsty down to London?
▪ In those days, clients tried to sneak into your office without anybody seeing them.
▪ Customs agents stopped Ahmed Ressam as he tried to sneak into the United States with a trunk full of explosives.
▪ I tried to sneak out with an open-necked shirt, but she called me back.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
have a sneaking feeling/suspicion/admiration
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The thieves sneaked in while the guard had his back turned.
▪ We tried to sneak off from work early.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Camille, who had sneaked in unseen to borrow the garlic-crusher, overheard this exchange and smiled.
▪ Deion sneaked up behind the announcer, who was wired for sound, and doused him with ice water.
▪ Even Mr Ratburn sneaks a laugh.
▪ I think it's going to sneak into each set of young people in each country.
▪ Instead, Wait sneaked off the sub and went back to his quarters and changed into a uniform.
▪ It wasn't hard to sneak a copy of the tutor's program and take it back to her room.
▪ The question came sneaking into her mind and, once there, it proved difficult to dislodge.
II.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He was knocked out just short, but Young quickly got the touchdown on a sneak.
▪ In time, the system settles down and householders and sneaks pass on genes with equal efficiency.
▪ Ting, a senior quarterback, capped the Riordan scoring with a pair of 1-yard sneaks.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sneak

Sneak \Sneak\, v. t. To hide, esp. in a mean or cowardly manner. [Obs.] ``[Slander] sneaks its head.''
--Wake.

Sneak

Sneak \Sneak\, n.

  1. A mean, sneaking fellow.

    A set of simpletons and superstitious sneaks.
    --Glanvill.

  2. (Cricket) A ball bowled so as to roll along the ground; -- called also grub. [Cant]
    --R. A. Proctor.

Sneak

Sneak \Sneak\ (sn[=e]k), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sneaked (sn[=e]kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Sneaking.] [OE. sniken, AS. sn[=i]can to creep; akin to Dan. snige sig; cf. Icel. sn[=i]kja to hanker after.]

  1. To creep or steal (away or about) privately; to come or go meanly, as a person afraid or ashamed to be seen; as, to sneak away from company.

    You skulked behind the fence, and sneaked away.
    --Dryden.

  2. To act in a stealthy and cowardly manner; to behave with meanness and servility; to crouch.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
sneak

1550s (implied in sneakish), perhaps from some dialectal survival of Middle English sniken "to creep, crawl" (c.1200), related to Old English snican "to sneak along, creep, crawl," from Proto-Germanic *sneikanan, which is related to the root of snake (n.). Of feelings, suspicions, etc., from 1748. Transitive sense, "to partake of surreptitiously" is from 1883. Related: Sneaking. Sneak-thief first recorded 1859; sneak-preview is from 1938.

sneak

"a sneaking person; mean, contemptible fellow," 1640s, from sneak (v.).

Wiktionary
sneak
  1. 1 In advance; before release to the general public. 2 In a stealthy or surreptitious manner. n. 1 One who sneaks; one who moves stealthily to acquire an item or information. 2 A cheat; a con artist; a trickster 3 An informer; a tell-tale. 4 (context obsolete cricket English) A ball bowled so as to roll along the ground; a daisy-cutter 5 (cx US English) A sneaker; a tennis shoe. v

  2. 1 (context intransitive English) To creep or go stealthily; to come or go while trying to avoid detection, as a person who does not wish to be seen. 2 (context transitive English) To take something stealthily without permission. 3 (context transitive dated English) To hide, especially in a mean or cowardly manner. 4 (context intransitive English) (''informal, especially with'' on) To inform an authority about another's misdemeanours; to tell tales; to grass.

WordNet
sneak
  1. n. someone who prowls or sneaks about; usually with unlawful intentions [syn: prowler, stalker]

  2. someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police [syn: fink, snitch, snitcher, stoolpigeon, stoolie, sneaker, canary]

  3. [also: snuck]

sneak
  1. adj. marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed; "a furtive manner"; "a lurking prowler"; "a sneak attack"; "stealthy footsteps"; "a surreptitious glance at his watch"; "someone skulking in the shadows" [syn: furtive, lurking, skulking, sneak(a), sneaky, stealthy, surreptitious]

  2. [also: snuck]

sneak
  1. v. to go stealthily or furtively; "..stead of sneaking around spying on the neighbor's house" [syn: mouse, creep, steal, pussyfoot]

  2. put, bring, or take in a secretive or furtive manner; "sneak a look"; "sneak a cigarette"

  3. make off with belongings of others [syn: pilfer, cabbage, purloin, pinch, abstract, snarf, swipe, hook, filch, nobble, lift]

  4. pass on stealthily; "He slipped me the key when nobody was looking" [syn: slip]

  5. [also: snuck]

Wikipedia
Sneak

Sneak or Sneaky may refer to:

  • The Sneaks, a band from New Zealand
    • The Sneaks (album), their debut album
  • DJ Sneak, Puerto Rican born American house music DJ and producer Carlos Sosa (born 1969)
  • Quarterback sneak, an American football play
  • Sneak magazine, a British weekly magazine published from 2002 to 2006
  • "Sneak" (novel), a 2012 apocalyptic novel by Evan Angler
  • Wiley Sneak, a main character on the British children's game show Trapped! (TV series)
  • The Sneak (film), a 1919 American drama film directed by Edward LeSaint
  • Sneaky (video gamer)
Sneak (novel)

Sneak is an apocalyptic fiction novel written by Evan Angler and published in 2012. The second book in the Swipe series, it is aimed at a middle grade audience.

Usage examples of "sneak".

Jackals, the glib Acer Loring and his chums were experts in the sneak attack.

And there are always profiteers exploiting loopholes, sneaking adware materials onto private property and then wrapping themselves up in the law.

And did I get that tin out in a hurry - and I felt awful, Asey, sneaking about with it!

It was she who had started sneaking cucumbers into their room, where they had all laughingly practiced the act they so avidly watched.

The enemy had brazenly managed to sneak up behind him and was now so close that he could have finished the Gun-dam off with a bazooka blast.

He was about to get up and sneak out when Mrs Biggs came back with two cups of coffee.

While I was getting them I heard somebody sneaking up outside, and saw a black man coming toward the doorway.

The Nodes from gates three to thirty-six were always buzzing with news of the latest infections caught trying to sneak past their guard.

He was being encouraged to sneak into the cottage and steal the cablegram while Snap was busy taking a bath.

Twice that summer they sneaked away to Chasseriallo, and a dozen times to Caza Reccolto.

I got hold of Pete Cowdy, that I knowed was a stoolie, and had him sneak me into your office, Joe.

Much as told the little sneak he was spirted on cold steel-or your cuprite blades-if he cheated a copper.

Pretty soon Dorry whispered for me to look, and he pointed to a dark thing kind of sneaking away.

When she would sneak away from her hidehouse on a spring night and lie in my arms and allow me to touch her lips with mine, to do all those wonderful and blood-rousing things which prepeople are allowed, her skirt or loincloth tucked securely between her legs to mark the only off-bounds area, I dared to think of it, of her in my hidehouse, with me bringing her the spoils of the hunt, for I was, truly, Eban, son of Egan the Hunter.

Don Gately was in the very early part of his Ennet House residency he almost got discharged for teaming up with a bad-news methedrine addict from New Bedford and sneaking out after curfew across the E.