snigger
/ˈsnɪɡə
/British
verb [no object]
Laugh in a half-suppressed, typically scornful way: the boys at school were sure to snigger at him behind his back [with direct speech]: ‘Doesn’t he look a fool?’ they sniggered...
- Felicity took one look at old Mrs. Briney and burst out laughing, sniggering and pointing at her.
- His friends sniggered with disbelief when he said was no longer using any drugs at all.
- So I turned around to see all of Conners friends pointing and sniggering at me.
Synonyms
give a suppressed laugh, snicker, sneer, smirk, simper;
titter, giggle, chortle
noun
A half-suppressed, typically scornful laugh: we heard the sniggers caused by their little jokes...
- This version is puerile, including jokes that could hardly have raised a snigger when first heard and turns of speech abandoned for over a generation.
- Having been a dedicated smoker for many years now, I was headed downstairs for a cigarette, when I heard quiet sniggers in the stairwell.
- The other girls on the team just stare at me, while I hear a deep snigger somewhere in the background.
Synonyms
suppressed laugh, snicker, sneer, smirk, simper;
titter, giggle, chortle
Derivatives
sniggerer
- We are great spontaneous sniggerers and we can do it in unison without any prompting from one another.
- I'll have you sniggerers know that as well as being a churchgoer, this chap was a very good rugby player.
- A snorter is a snob expressing their disapproval, while a sniggerer is insensitive, unsympathetic and immature.
sniggeringly
- The vision of sexuality is sniggeringly salacious, redolent with fantasies of male power and female submission.
- Those involved in racketeering, corruption and bribery should not be lionised, praised or sniggeringly regarded.
- The narratorial presence sniggeringly indicates that the reader might be allowed to rewrite and reformulate the poem.
Origin
Early 18th century: later variant of snicker.
Rhymes
- liberate
- liberated
- Liberate Roll
- liberation
- liberation army
- liberation front
- liberationism
- liberationist
- liberation movement
- Liberation Society
- liberation theologian
- liberation theologist
- liberation theology
- Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
- liberation war
- liberative
- liberator
- liberatory
- liberatress
- liberatrix
- Liberia
- Liberian
- Liberian basilica
- Liberian Calendar
- Liberian catalog