snub

comparative more snub · superlative most snub · alternative snib

1. Conspicuously short.

   a snub-nosed revolver

2. Flat and broad, with the end slightly turned up.

   If I close my eyes I can see Marie today as I saw her then. Round, rosy face, snub nose, dark hair piled up in a chignon.

   1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 2, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN

   1 more example

   It was even less easy to fix the impression in the case of the man at the right end of the table, who, to say truth, was as commonplace a person as could be seen anywhere, with a round, brown-haired head and a round snub nose, but also clad in clerical black, of a stricter cut.

   1914, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, The Wisdom of Father Brown

3. mathematicsDerived from a simpler polyhedron by the addition of extra triangular faces.

plural snubs · alternative snib

1. A deliberate affront or slight.

   I hope the people we couldn't invite don't see it as a snub.

   3 more examples

   It was part of Evelyn’s character that in spite of many snubs which she received or imagined, she never gave up the pursuit of people she wanted to know, and in the long run generally succeeded in knowing them and even in making them like her.

   1915, Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out, London: Duckworth & Co., […], →OCLC

   The bluntness of King Vajiralongkorn's intervention—and the determination it reveals to resist relatively small checks on royal power—is both a snub to the junta and a worry for democrats, some of whom had dared hope that the new king might be happy to take a back seat in public life.

   2017 January 14, “Thailand's new king rejects the army's proposed constitution”, in The Economist

   The snub from a traditional ally to Putin, who had hosted an inconsequential meeting of the warring countries’ leaders last month, comes immediately on the back of his disastrous summit with six former Soviet states.

   2022 November 25, Daniel Boffey, “Putin’s grip on regional allies loosens again after Armenia snub”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

2. A sudden checking of a cable or rope.
3. obsoleteA knot; a protuberance; a snag.

   [A club] with ragged snubs and knotty grain.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 7

present singular third person snubs · participle present snubbing · participle past snubbed · past snubbed · alternative snib

1. transitiveTo slight, ignore or behave coldly toward someone.

   For near three mortal months have you trifled with my feelings, eluded me, and snubbed me; and I won’t stand it!

   1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC

   3 more examples

   When, therefore, the First Secretary sounded him as to the expediency of some step in the direction of a firmer political combination than that at present existing,—by which of course was meant the dethronement of the present Prime Minister,—Mr. Roby had snubbed him!

   1876, Anthony Trollope, The Prime Minister. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC

   Lily was sure that within twenty-four hours the story of her visiting her dress-maker at the Benedick would be in active circulation among Mr. Rosedale’s acquaintances. The worst of it was that she had always snubbed and ignored him.

   1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC

   For a long time he lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor, and no one thought very much about him. He was naturally shy, and being only made of velveteen, some of the more expensive toys quite snubbed him.

   1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

   Synonyms: give someone the cold shoulder, turn the cold shoulder on someone, cut someone cold, cut someone dead

2. transitiveTo turn down insultingly; to dismiss.

   He snubbed my offer of help.

   1 more example

   The joke is on those who snub books which, judged by their covers, are written for the mass market. Mineshaft is the finest satire in gay literature.

   1986 February 15, Lars Eighner, “A Homosexual Norman Mailer?”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 31, page 5

   Synonyms: rebuff

3. transitiveTo check; to reprimand.
4. transitiveTo stub out (a cigarette etc).
5. transitiveTo halt the movement of a rope etc by turning it about a cleat or bollard etc; to secure a vessel in this manner.
6. transitiveTo clip or break off the end of; to check or stunt the growth of.

present singular third person snubs · participle present snubbing · participle past snubbed · past snubbed · alternative snib

1. To sob with convulsions.

   He striveth, strugleth, roareth, sobbeth, snubbeth, and ready he is to burst for anger.

   1621, Thomas Bedford, The Sinne Vnto Death