Green’s Dictionary of Slang

snout n.2

[SE snout; when tobacco was barred from prisons, a prisoner would mask his smoking by pretending to rub his nose; but note London gangster Billy Hill (1955) who claimed it came from the use of snuff, when tobacco was forbidden, which was inhaled via the nose or ‘snout’]

1. (also snoute) tobacco.

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[UK] ‘Six Years in the Prisons of England’ in Temple Bar Mag. Jan. 219: In return for this kindness he would get an inch or two of tobacco, or ‘snout’.
[UK]Sheffield & Rotherham Indep. 11 Oct. 9: It ia a very curious fact that all this searching never results in a ‘find of snout’ (discovery of tobacco).
[UK]Newcastle Courant 2 Sept. 6/5: Sam has a horror of sturabins ever since the screws put him in chokey for taking a bit of snout offered him by another gloak when he thought no one was looking.
[UK]A. Griffiths Fast and Loose III 202: He knows Joe; worked with him, with regard to snout (tobacco); and he’s straight—as a rod.
[UK]J. Bent Criminal Life 272: Snoute ... Tobacco.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 77: Snout, tobacco.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Aug. 14/2: ‘Snout,’ a gaol-slang term for tobacco, is also commonly used by bushmen; so is ‘screw’.
[NZ]Truth (Wellington) 11 Jan. 5/5: He would have sent him some snout [...] to the uninitated [...] snout means tobacco.
[Aus]V. Marshall World of Living Dead (1969) 83: Fer the love o’ Gawd, give us a taste o’ snout.
[UK]S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 180: There had been some dispute between them about the division of ‘snout’ (tobacco).
[UK]Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 10: Snout: Tobacco.
[UK]V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 190: He wanted ‘snout’. He could chew tobacco.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[UK]J. Gosling Ghost Squad 25: Thieves’ argot, spoken properly, is a foreign language which needs to be learned [...] ‘Snout’ has two meanings (a) an informer (b) cigarettes and tobacco.
[UK](con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 41: A convict will do a knifing for not much more snout [...] than get left in any hotel ashtray.
[SA]H. Levin Bandiet 116: The cleaner [...] offered us a week’s supply of ‘snout’ on tick.
[UK]S. McConville ‘Prison Lang.’ in Michaels & Ricks (1980) 525: Tobacco [...] is referred to as a burn or as snout or weed.
[UK]J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 73: Someone’s mate on the visitors slips you a bit of snout.
[SA]A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 104: Shop-bought tobacco was called snout in English and twak in Afrikaans.
[Scot]T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] If he traded a jelly-trifle for a bag of snout in Peterhead, I want to know who with.

2. a cigarette.

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[Ire]B. Behan Scarperer (1966) 47: I’ve no doubt there was a bit of snout hanging on the job [...] I’d swap twenty Afton for a lie in bed any day of the week.
[UK]W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act II: I gave him half a dozen fags, that’s all... I gave him half a dozen snouts.
[UK]F. Norman Guntz 6: I sat in this dead miserable waiting room smoking a snout.
[UK]R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 21: Settling down and lighting a snout.
[UK]S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 47: Donate a snout, Mike?
[UK]M. Amis London Fields 245: In his pink-tinged Y-fronts, with the beercan on his gut and the fuzzing snout in his fingers.
[UK]B. Robinson Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman 60: He bought a packet of Park Drive filters [...] Park Drive were not only the cheapest twenty you could get, they were also the strongest. Maurice rated them a ‘fair snout’.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 5 Feb. 7: He [...] sat me down, pulled out a snout and started to talk.
[UK]J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 74: Missus Granger the senior [...] going strong, fuelled by non-tipped snout and milk stout.
[Scot]G. Armstrong Young Team 16: Singin, shoutin n smokin snout.

In compounds

In phrases

snouted up (adj.)

smoking a cigarette.

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[UK]J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 74: They’re all snouted up as well, lighting one off the other.