See Also: muggins(dictionary)
muggins(dictionary)

sneer (iou) and muggins (oh)


sneer (iou)



sneer verb & noun. LME.

A. verb.
I. verb intrans.
Smile scornfully or contemptuously; speak or write in a manner suggesting or expressing contempt or disparagement. Freq. foll. by at. LME.
M. Hocking Money is not to be sneered at...I often wish I had a little more. M. Forster She hates the Summer Exhibition, sneers..at my pleasure in it.
Of a horse: snort. Earlier as SNEERING. obsolete exc. dial. M16.
II. verb trans.
Speak or write of (a person or thing) with scorn, contempt, or disparagement; deride, mock. obsolete exc. dial. LME.
Utter sneeringly. L17.
Tennyson 'A ship of fools,' he sneer'd.
Drive or force (a person, quality, etc.) by sneers or scorn. Foll. by adverb (phr.). M18.
A. J. Wilson The world has not sneered it..entirely out of existence. G. R. Turner Bastard Kovacs tried to sneer down my Success.
b. noun.
A snort, esp. of a horse. Chiefly Scot. Now rare or obsolete. LME.
An act of sneering; a derisive, contemptuous, or scornful look or remark. E18.
V. Sackville-West He..despised mankind so much that he seldom spoke without a sneer. G. S. Haight Huxley's sneer that he was a mere 'book-scientist' stung..sharply.
b. Sneering, scorn. L18.
sneerer noun a person who sneers E18.
sneerful adjective given to sneering, scornful M18.
sneery adjective of a sneering or scornful character L19.

muggins (oh)



[Date: 1800-1900; Origin: Probably from the name Muggins, linked with MUG1 4]
used humorously to mean yourself, when you feel stupid because you have let Other people treat you unfairly
::Everyone disappeared after supper, leaving muggins here to do the washing-up.