snip, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

snip v.

[SE snip, to slice, to cut; 20C+ uses Aus.]

1. to swindle, to deceive.

1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1967		Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxvii 7/1: You’ve run out of money in the pub and you haven’t got a cracker in the bank. Do you [...] try to snip someone?
1993		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 103: I could have snipped them for a much bigger sling.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Snip. To borrow (typically tobacco) or sometimes to cheat.

2. (Aus.) to borrow (usu. money), to ask for a loan.

1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xl 4/4: snip: To borrow money from a person.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 158: The first time in living memory that [...] anyone had been snipped by Big Oscar.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Snip. To borrow (typically tobacco) or sometimes to cheat.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 319: ‘[S]o many mugs and hangers-on snipped him after the race that [...] he was fair dinkum flat broke!’ .
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 78: You snip 200 bucks off me and then get me to drive you to a parlor!

3. (Irish) to seduce, to pick up.

2000

P. Howard Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 134: He ended up snipping Wendy O’Neill on Friday night.

4. to perform a vasectomy.

2012

M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] Besides, No Nuts, I got meself snipped a while back.

snipper (n.)

an implacable critic.

2018

(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 44: Better a pair of cruel snippers, icy snubbers, implacable adversaries she could never hope to appease.

snip-cabbage (n.) (also snip-louse) [cabbage n.¹ (1)/SE louse]

a tailor.

1707		N. Ward London Terraefilius V 35: The Gentleman and yonder Snip-cabbage, his Taylor, commended for their Ingenuity.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 162: Snip, Sniplouse a tailor’s shears work with a clicketting snip; this explains the first word; and, for the second, they, no doubt, were furnished with an insect a-piece to snip, when, like other mechanics, they wore powder and pomatum in the louse-gorse.

go snip (v.) (also go snips, go half-snips)

to share, to divide up.

1659		Catterpillers of this Nation Anatomized 37: They play booty, that they may go half-snipps for the Bets.
1668		Dryden An Evening’s Love Act V: Pray, Sir, let me go snip with you in this Lye.
1675		Head Art of Wheedling 44: Such a one he knows Skilful enough to kill the Patients, with whom he goes snips.
1677		Proc. Old Bailey 12 Dec. n.p.: He should surprize them at work, and then get a good sum for concealment, wherein she was to go snips.
1702		J. Floyer Essay to Prove Cold Bathing 219: Those that go Snips with their Apothecaries, Villains of the first Magnitude; here the Patient is in a pretty Pickle.
1708		True Characters of A Deceitful Petty-Fogger et al. 3: He began to look toward the Law, by Soliciting for Criminals at the Quarter Sessions, where the Favour of his Master Justice, who went Snips in his fees, gave him the Reputation of a Man of Knowledge.

snip a (paper) dolly (v.) [play on cut out v.³ (1)]

(US black) to leave, to go away.

1940		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 27 July 20: ‘I did it like Aunt Folly, snipped me a paper dolly, and broomed on out of the door’.
1944		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 13 May 6B: After I pops in port in the Apple, I snip out a dolly right away for the trap.