Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a Poor Law Institution.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1108: [...] from ca. 1920.

2. a tattle-tale, a sycophant.

1933		M. Hodge Wind and Rain (1934) 19: He may be a perfect little snurge [...] for all you know, and we shall be loathing the sight of him inside a week .
1956		C.P. Snow Homecomings 308: He had got on a good deal better as a snurge than he would have done as a malcontent, and it was romantic to think otherwise .

3. a generally contemptible person (reputed to sniff women’s bicycle seats).

1942		G. Kersh Nine Lives Bill Nelson 73: He invents new names to call people. ‘Twillip!’ he says. ‘Snurge! Twitterbug! Bugscratcher!’.
1963		C. Wood ‘Prisoner and Escort’ in Cockade (1965) I iii: Snurge. Both of you – I’ve seen you with girls’ bikes.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1108/1: mid-C.20.
1999		Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 15: garboon n. See snurge.
2006		Gren Bay Gaz. (WI) 16 June E5/5: A ‘snurge’ is a despicable person, especially a sneaky litle toady whose greatest joy comes from ratting out other people.