Talk:sneak in

RFD discussion: June–September 2018

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sneak in

sneak up

sneak away

sneak off

sneak up on

Each as SoP. See conversation at #sneak out.

• sneak in (sense 1) is purely sneak + in. Sense 2 is more idiomatic, and may end up warranting to keep the entry with the &lit designation on sense 1--but I think it would do better to add a relevant sense to sneak.

• sneak up is simply sneak + up (sense 12)--up can be used with just about any movement verb in this sense: I snuck up to the house, I walked up to the house, I ran up to the house, I drove up to the house, I bicycled up to the house, I roller-skated up to the house, I crawled up to the house, etc.

• sneak away is similar: sneak + away. E.g., I snuck away from the crowd, I ran away from the crowd, I somersaulted away from the crowd, etc.

• sneak off is the same thing: sneak + off (adverb sense 1). Sneak off, drive off, stomp off, etc.

• sneak up on, even though it has a narrower definition, is still simply sneak + up (sense 12) + on (sense 2).

--SanctMinimalicen (talk) 13:57, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

• Is this a can of worms or Pandora's box? DonnanZ (talk) 15:23, 23 June 2018 (UTC)
  • It could be, I suppose--but it may also help avoid one. Because if we have sneak away, etc., if we are to be consistent we ought also have sneak into, sneak around, sneak on/sneak on to (as in, I snuck on (to) the ship when the sailors weren't looking), sneak under (I snuck under the gate), sneak behind, sneak along, sneak through, sneak between, etc. And those would behove us to do the same thing with other motion verbs: walk, run, creep, etc., which actually starts looking like a Pandora's box. --SanctMinimalicen (talk) 15:46, 23 June 2018 (UTC)
• Keep sneak up and/or sneak up on per lemming principle (in Cambridge, Collins, Macmillan, Longman), and maybe create sneak on, which is said to be old-fashioned by Longman – “sneak on” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.); delete the rest. Per utramque cavernam 10:10, 4 September 2018 (UTC)