snout

English

Etymology

From Middle English snowte, snoute, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German snute (alternatively spelled snuut, snuyt), lastly from Proto-Germanic *snūtaz, but further origin unknown. Compare Saterland Frisian Snuute, Dutch snuit or snoet (“snout; cute face”), High German Schnauze, Schnute. Doublet of snoot.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /snaʊt/
  • (Canada) IPA(key): /snʌʊt/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -aʊt

Noun

snout (plural snouts)

  1. The long, projecting nose, mouth, and jaw of a beast, as of pigs.
    The pig rooted around in the dirt with its snout.
  2. The front of the prow of a ship or boat. [First attested in 1387.][1]
    • 1944, Miles Burton, The Three Corpse Trick, chapter 5:
      The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.
  3. (derogatory) A person's nose.
    His glasses kept slipping further down onto his prominent snout.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Hudibras to this entry?)
  4. The nozzle of a pipe, hose, etc.
    If you place the snout right into the bucket, it won't spray as much.
  5. The anterior prolongation of the head of a gastropod; a rostrum.
  6. The anterior prolongation of the head of weevils and allied beetles; a rostrum.
  7. (Britain, slang) Tobacco; cigarettes.
    • 1967, Len Deighton, Only When I Larf
      (Bob, p. 55:) Charlie was the most vicious screw on the block ... He caught me with the two ounces of snout right in my hand, caught me by the hair, and swung me round in the exercise yard ...
      (Spider, p. 175:) She brings me snout and sweets, and sometimes a cake from Mum.
    • 1982, Edward Bond, Saved
      LIZ. I only got one left. / FRED (calls). Get us some snout. / MIKE. Five or ten?
    • 2000, Joe Randolph Ackerley, P N Furbank, We Think the World of You
      Also he was "doing his nut" for some "snout." I said I would provide cigarettes.
    • 2004, Allan Sillitoe, New and Collected Stories
      Raymond rolled a neat cigarette. "What about some snout, then?" "No, thanks." He laughed. Smoke drifted from his open mouth.
  8. The terminus of a glacier.
  9. (slang) A police informer.
  10. A butterfly in the nymphalid subfamily Libytheinae, notable for the snout-like elongation on their heads.

Translations

Verb

snout (third-person singular simple present snouts, present participle snouting, simple past and past participle snouted)

  1. To furnish with a nozzle or point.

Further reading

References
  1. J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner (prepared by), The Compact Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (Claredon Press, Oxford 1991 [1989], →ISBN), page 1811

Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

snout

  1. Alternative form of snowte
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