snotter

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒtə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

Noun

snotter (plural snotters)

1. (nautical) A rope going over a yardarm, used to bend a tripping line to, in sending down topgallant and royal yards in vessels of war; also, the short line supporting the heel of the sprit in a small boat.

Alternative forms

• snouter

Etymology 2

Verb

snotter (third-person singular simple present snotters, present participle snottering, simple past and past participle snottered)

1. (intransitive) To snivel; to cry or whine.
   • 1785, William Hutton, A Bran New Wark:

     Araund the woman her lile ans ſprawl'd on the hearth, ſome, whiting ſpeals, ſome, ſnottering and crying, and ya ruddy cheek'd lad threw on a bullen to make a loww, for its mother to find her loup.

   • 1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC:

     What signified his bringing a woman here to snotter and snivel, and bather their Lordships?

   • 2021, Alison Craig, Blue Skies at the Birdie and Bramble:

     'Aaaaaah. and that's another thing, I want a home,' I snottered. What the hell was going on? I was an emotional wreck […]

2. (colloquial) To smack; to hit
   • 2013, Maurice Procter, Devil's Due:

     'You snottered a sergeant, didn't you? My oh my! Clouting a police sergeant is something I've dreamed about for years.'

Noun

snotter (countable and uncountable, plural snotters)

1. The wattles of a turkeycock.
2. (Scotland) Snot; mucus.
3. (UK, slang, obsolete) A handkerchief.
   • 1849, The Ragged School Union Magazine, volumes 1-2, page 175:

     We had our regular rendezvous, […] where we refreshed ourselves with meat and drink, sung obscene and abominable songs […] , instructed the younger members systematically in prigging (stealing,) concerted robberies, washed and valued "snotters" (handkerchiefs,) and disposed of them, besides the other practices of a nefarious and abandoned fraternity.

4. (UK, slang, obsolete) A pickpocket who steals handkerchiefs.
   • 2020, Ellie Jacobs, The Last Orphan: A Victorian Romance:

     You're barely breaking even with the snotters stealing handkerchiefs in the square.

Anagrams

• Stentor, stentor