Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US, also snider) spec. counterfeit money; thus snide lurk, the passing of counterfeit money; snide shop, an agency that organizes the passing of counterfeit money; snide tickler, a passer of counterfeit money.

1879		New Ulm Rev. (MN) 19 Nov. 1/5: I left my valuables in the hotel safe, and supplied myself with an imposing amount of ‘snide’.
1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 21: The higher and middle ranks of the aristocracy of crime [...] professional swindlers, members of the ‘long firm,’ and dealers in ‘snide’ (base coin).
1887		Cumberalnd Mercury (NSW) 29 Jan. 4/6: Pocohontas thinks sniders more effective than cheques.
1889		Clarkson & Richardson Police! 320: A passer of bad money ... A smasher, snide tickler.
1891		cited in Partridge DU (1961) 653/2: snide lurk, the A variant of snide-pitching [...] 1893 [sic] F.W. Carew [...] implied in a criminal’s nickname: ‘Snide Lurk’.
1925		E. Jervis 25 Years in Six Prisons 150: ‘Bank of Engraving’ notes, which are known to the fraternity as ‘Lills,’ just as base-coin is known as ‘snyde’.
1925		cited in Partridge DU (1961) 653/2: snide shop. An agency for the marketing of counterfeit money [...] Edgar Wallace The Mind of Mr [J.G.] Reeder, 1925.
1927		E. Wallace Squeaker (1950) 153: Walter [...] produced five notes and passed them to Bill, who examined them critically. He handed one back. ‘Snide,’ he said.
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 105: Very low in the prison social scale is the manufacturer of ‘snide’ (counterfeit coins).
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 70: ‘It’s probably snide,’ remarked Toppy, taking up the coin, biting it, and bouncing it on the table.
1958		Mad mag. May–June 7: It’s crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide.
1959		J. Gosling Ghost Squad 24: Thieves’ argot, spoken properly, is a foreign language which needs to be learned [...] for instance, ‘snide’ for counterfeit notes and coins.
1981		(con. c.1910) A. Harding in Samuel East End Und. 80: There ain’t no charge if you’ve only got one false coin. The one that took in the snide had only that on him, so if he was caught it seemed like an accident.

2. a deceptive, fake person; a confidence trickster.

1873		Sl. Dict. 299: Snide Also used as a substantive, as, ‘He’s a snide,’ though this seems but a contraction of SNIDE ’UN.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 4 Dec. 7/3: [He] remarks of Lotta that ‘she’s a daisy, but the old man is a dizzy old snide’.
1890		Sporting Times 8 Mar. 2/1: After a few had been chucked, there would be a dearth of the snide.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 61: snide, n. A mean contemptible fellow.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 201: snide, a mean, dishonest person. ‘That big snide! I’ll never trade with him again.’ (Thorn.).
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 418: Snide. A mean person, a cheapskate. Short-change artist.
1946		(con. 1910s) J. Thompson Heed the Thunder (1994) 49: His voice was rich and convincing. He was far from being a snide.
1959		J. Yates-Benyon Weak and the Wicked 120: Chiefie’s a damn snide who’s gotta be clocked.
2004		N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 47: The burglary squad, who I considered snides and bullies of the first order.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 954: One snide cheapjoked that he should get a pair of glasses to signal his new intellectualis.

3. something worthless.

1875

N.Y. Times 18 July 8/1: I’ve known many a better job done in old times than [the] one [a burglary] in Mangin street, which is altogether a ‘snide’.

4. worthless goods, touted as valuable; also attrib.

1894		Truth (Sydney) 24 June 1/4: [of stocks] There’s Scrip, who deals in wild-cat mines, / [...] / Made half a million on those lines, / An eminent ’snide’ broker.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Aug. 26/4: It was a hard, cold time for the ‘snide’ salesman and his confederates who purchased trinkets at 10 times their value merely to encourage the mugs to bid up.

5. (UK Und.) anything counterfeit.

1875		Decatur Dly Republican (IL) 29 May 6/1: It is sparkling and brilliant to look at, but the close observer [...] it is nothing but snide.
1882		E. Nye Forty Liars (1888) 113: If people turn up their noses at your [mining] claim then, and say it is a snide [...] you can tell them that they are clear off, and that you have salted your claim.
1901		W. Irwin Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum VI n.p.: I’m wise his diamond ring’s a cut-glass snide.
1922		Sun. Times (Perth, WA) 29 Oct. 35/7: We’ve heard of Cleopatra’s pearl that lost old Mark the world - / It might have been a ‘snide’ that caused him to be outward hurled.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 201: Snide Anything worthless, unpleasant or counterfeit.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 12: The snide, the wrong ’un, tucked away inside.

6. (orig. S.Afr.) imitation diamonds, fake gold, platinum and silver jewellery.

2004

(con. 1979) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 210: We did a bit of burglary [...] and sold a lot of ‘snide’ to keep ourselves in beer, fags and clothes. [...] Snide is the name for fake jewellery.