snilch

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /snɪlt͡ʃ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪltʃ

Verb

snilch (third-person singular simple present snilches, present participle snilching, simple past and past participle snilched)

1. (intransitive, transitive) To eye or look or spy at any thing attentively.
   • 1994, Kate Ross, Cut to the Quick, →ISBN, page 122:

     “ […] I got a hankering to see it meself, and when I found I had a little time before dinner, I piked downstairs and had a peery. And it was the lummiest place, sir—I never seen nothing like it. I was so took up with looking at everything, I forgot about dinner, till I snilched the clock and saw how late it was, and I broomed it to the servants' hall.”

   • 2011, Douglas Hulick, Among Thieves: A Tale of the Kin, Penguin, →ISBN:

     “There're whispers,” he said, his voice dropping. “Someone's snilching Nicco.” I stopped, the orange midway to my mouth, which had suddenly gone dry.
     “Snilching?” I said. That wasn't good. No one liked spies, but Nicco was pathological about them.

   • 2012 October 10, John Klawitter, Foul‎^[1], Double Dragon Publishing, →ISBN:

     "You snilching me, buddy?" Brando growled.
     "What the fuck does that mean?" Jimmy screamed.
     Brando lowered his voice another notch, "Ahh, you are snilching me! Giving me the glimp eye, are you?"

Further reading

• Francis Grose (1788) “SNILCH”, in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, S. Hooper, page 231