snickle

English

Etymology 1

Variant of sniggle.

Noun

snickle (plural snickles)

1. (dialect) Suppressed or sly laughter; snigger.
   • 2011, Chandra Calton, You are welcomed: Just bring your heart, →ISBN, page 17:

     I undress while listening to the snickles on the other end.

   • 2013, Mel Bergstresser, Humour For All Ages, Occasions, and Celebrations, →ISBN:

     The teacher heard laughter and snickles in his area so she went to check what was going on.

   • 2014, Burton W. Cole, Bash and the Chicken Coop Caper, →ISBN, page 77:

     And she dissolved into another round of sniggers and snickles.

Verb

snickle (third-person singular simple present snickles, present participle snickling, simple past and past participle snickled)

1. (intransitive, dialect) To laugh at someone or something
   • 1881, Joel Chandler Harris, Mr. Benjamin Ram and His Wonderful Fiddle:

     "many's de time w'at I sees um laughin' en laughin', w'en I lay dey ain't kin tell w'at dey er laughin' at deyse'f. En 'tain't der laughin' w'at pesters me, nudder" — relenting a little — "hit's dish yer ev'lastin' snickle en giggle, giggle en snickle."

   • 2009, Kathryn Magendie, Tender Graces, →ISBN, page 217:

     I put the phone down and snickled.

   • 2012, Kathryn Magendie, Family Graces, →ISBN, page 149:

     “There's whooooo?” Bobby snickles.

   • 2015, Ursula Dianna, Layers of Velvet: This Is My Life, →ISBN:

     He snickled and told me, that he'll make that just for bringing me in.

Etymology 2

Unknown. Perhaps from sneck (“a latch; catch”) +‎ -le (diminutive suffix). Compare snack (“to snap; click”), snatch.

Noun

snickle (plural snickles)

1. (dialect) A noose or snare made using a slip knot.
   • 1589, Christopher Marlowe:, The Jew of Malta:

     I carried the broth that poisoned the nuns, and he and I, snickle hand too fast, strangled a friar.

   • 1829, Charles Joseph Latrobe, The Alpenstock Or Sketches of Swiss Scenary and Manners: 1825-1826:

     The whole line of route abounds in gins, traps, snickles, and nets, for the money of Messieurs les Voyageurs in general, and that of Milor Anglais in particular.

   • 1845, Wise Saws and Modern Instances, page 216:

     Every urchin in the village of Haxey had been blamed, at one time or other, for the base machination of setting "snickles," or nooses of wire, in the tailor's little garden.

   • 2004, Marlene George, Your Life is Now!, →ISBN, page 46:

     Young Tommy, and young Plug are excused supplying snickles, because they know naff all about them, We will show them how to make one tomorrow, but I propose they bring double bread ration.

   • 2015, Steve Ely, Ted Hughes’s South Yorkshire: Made in Mexborough, →ISBN:

     Leslie himself would set 'snickles' (snares) for rabbits near the ICI explosives plant, and believes that his snaring territory would have extended onto the eastern fringe of Manor Farm.

Verb

snickle (third-person singular simple present snickles, present participle snickling, simple past and past participle snickled)

1. (transitive, dialect) To snare using a snickle.
   • 1836, Samuel Carter Hall, Amulet, Or, Christian and Literary Remembrancer, page 126:

     Whether Miriam was duly instructed on the subject of the per-centage usually required upon perisable subjects of commerce, or whether she though it right that the squire should be charged moderately for the carp taken from his own ponds, the pigeons furnished by his own dove-cote, the hares snickled in his own meadows, we know not — it is only certain, she was industrious in procuring immediately the dainties required, and moderate in the price she demanded.

   • 1841, Thomas Miller, Gideon Giles, the Roper, page 118:

     "Then where the devil can she have hidden herself?" replied the other, hutching up the two hares on his shoulder as he spoke, and which had but just been 'snickled.'

   • 1845, Thomas Cooper, Wise Saws and Modern Instances - Volume 1, page 24:

     Dick had so long careered it over the farmer's fields, by day and by night, and had so often "snickled," or noosed the hares, as one may say, under the farmer's nose, and the farmer had all the while taken it so mildly, that the poacher was never more surprised in his life than at this portentous assault upon his person by mild, goo-natured Kiah Dobson.

   • 2002, John Waddington-Feather, Yorkshire Dialect, →ISBN, page 85:

     There's Dick at war a champion wi t'ploo, Ti set a rig an furrow straight an true, An Ben at snickled monny a fine fat hare, E'll niwer trouble t'keepers onny mair! Arry, that oor Sarah used to cooart.

2. (transitive, dialect) To tie up or hang (something) using a rope around the neck.
   • 1828, Charles Jenner, The Placid Man, Or, Memoirs of Sir Charles Beville, page 240:

     Well, well," said the governor, " mind what I say ; I stay in town just six weeks ; and if I don't see you both fairly snickled before I go, I'll never forgive either of you.

   • 2002, William T Vollmann, Argall, →ISBN, page 355:

     He's snickled by futility.

3. (transitive, dialect) To use (a rope) to tie or hang by the neck.
   • 1980, Sybil Marshall, Fenland Chronicle: Recollections of William Henry and Kate Mary Edwards collected and edited by their daughter, →ISBN, page 62:

     I jumped out with a piece of thin chain, which I snickled round her neck, and pulled her aboard.

Anagrams

• nickles, nickels, slicken, Lesnick, Nickels, Nickles