snivel
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And I whine a little bit and moan and snivel, and that works.
From New York Times ● Jun. 28, 2021
Deny your partner a Facebook or Twitter account if you want, but don't snivel when people are swirling their fingers round their ears at talk of your name.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 8, 2011
The Yorkshire Post declared: "Drivel and snivel, in days of challenge and strain, may almost be classed as a minor form of Fifth Column activity."
From Time Magazine Archive
Basketball's all-time biggest draw retires to the golf links, the second-rate wannabes he turned into multimillionaires snivel about their economic hardship, and the league still finds ways to fill the tent.
From Time Magazine Archive
I snivel and sniff and give a weak nod.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
Zachary Quinto snivels in prime form as the insecure son of Niagara, and Pearce’s screenplay saves some of its sharpest stuff for their less-than-idyllic relationship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2018
Yet another former South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, was described with “sweats, snivels and tears all over his face.”
From The New Yorker ● May 14, 2017
Bruno becomes more interesting, she grows less so, and still she snivels at center stage, whining about her bad luck and mistreatment.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2015
The South that simpers, storms and snivels in these pages moves along a sort of up-to-date Tobacco Road, paved right into town.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then they lay quiet, panting, listening to Robert's frightened snivels.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
"You know what, I, I, I, find that ludicrous. But if it's the case, maybe you'll win a Pulitzer for that," he sniveled.
From Salon ● May 9, 2022
In a surprisingly involved moment, the character cowered and sniveled as the desire for vengeance coursed through me.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2010
He sniveled: "S'elp me, Hi honly done it to sive a few bob t'buy warm clothes for me wife an' child!"
From Time Magazine Archive
“Your clothes look cool to me,” Otto sniveled.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
“Sorry I gave you a hard time this morning,” I sniveled.
From "Fourth Grade Rats" by Jerry Spinelli
"I didn't realise what I'd done," Tabloid Wayne snivelled to shock Richard Keys and jock Andy Gray in reference to that post-West Ham swearing ballyhoo that folks keep banging on about.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 13, 2011
With one grimy little hand, stiff and rough from the cold, the small man smeared the tears from his eyes and snivelled.
From My Actor-Husband A true story of American stage life by Anonymous
"I'll go home to my mother and work at dressmaking," snivelled Emma as she prepared to depart.
From The Youngest Girl in the Fifth A School Story by Stanley Davis
Bellaroba snivelled, but she was scornful under her cloak, and no word passed between the pair until they were in the great blunt-nosed barge, heading against a crisping tide for Chioggia.
From Little Novels of Italy by Maurice Henry Hewlett
"I have been guilty of every kind of sin," snivelled the cardinal.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 by Various
Those sequences are so terrifying because you're reduced to this sniveling child character, and it felt different from the types of characters that we usually see you play, which are so headstrong and confident.
From Salon ● Feb. 20, 2025
Um, it might be the last debate before the Iowa caucuses — it is worth your time, even if you just stoop to name-calling like, “begone you sniveling weasel.”
From Washington Times ● Dec. 6, 2023
I’d expect Matthew Macfadyen to repeat as the sniveling Tom Wambsgans, but he could split the vote with the likes of Alexander Skarsgård, Nicholas Braun and possibly others.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2023
To me, it seemed like a reasonable bit of rhetorical balm, an exhortation to summon the better angels of our nature, but Oliver saw it as a sniveling, sanctimonious, hypocritical lie.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 14, 2021
Well, that gives us two possibilities, Victor thought before reheating yesterday's risotto; Then he took the sniveling tortoise to the vet again.
From "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funke
Nobody – least of all Joaquin Phoenix’s snivelling party entertainer – believed he stood a snowball’s chance in hell.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 7, 2019
Incredibly, some snivelling types continue to snipe at the mighty champion, pointing out that none of those wins has come by more than two and a half lengths.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 30, 2010
She hated how the cops—both cops—were staring at her, like they’d never seen anything so sad or so pathetic before, like she was some snivelling little mangy dog.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 22, 2010
The sullen, steel-grey sky seems to be permanently snivelling sleet.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2010
It was very quiet again, except for Hooper, snivelling, and the sound of the water.
From "I'm the King of the Castle" by Susan Hill
Vocabulary lists containing snivel
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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"Of Mice and Men"
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Instead of "Said": Words For Sad Speech
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