Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. dirty, paltry, contemptible.

1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) VI 109: Besides, to shew your humoour snottie, / Who made their stately Fields, I pray?
1673		J. Wade Vinegar and Mustard A6: And now I say (yet speak under the Rose) Those snotty fellows, that pek[?] in the Nose, Like to the Papist sily women tice, For to undo their Husbands in a trice.
1674		T. Duffet Empress of Morocco Act III: I did with hands in Pocket door maintain, Gainst show’res of marrow bones and Piss pot Rain, Have I made Wive’s secur’d by Husbands yield, Sent snotty Rascals cursing from loves Field.
1696		J. Dunton Night-Walker Dec. 15: No, D--m it, says she, I love better to be my own Mistress, and to rise and go to Bed when I will, than to be curb’d by every snotty Dame.
c.1700		London-Bawd (1705) 173: [as cit. 1696].
1725		cited in H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 365: Cambridge, Massachusetts, was dismissed as a ‘Snotty Town’ by an Anglican minister, the Reverend Timothy Cutler, in a letter on April 2, 1725.
1732		Harlot’s Progress 38: I could have ventur’d Plague and Pox / [...] / To’ve had a silly snotty Pleasure.
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 27 Jan. 100: Get out of my house, you nasty snotty little nincompoop.
1886		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 16 Oct. 14/1: What! ninety stockholders to a snotty little club like the Stars of Syracuse? Where do the profits come In.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 133: You snotty little punk!
1953		Bucks. Herald 6 Feb. 5/2: Two other things that might be pointed out to the public — shutting gates on farms, and ‘keeping their snotty dogs at home’.
1958		E. Aarons Gang Rumble (2021) 8: Some snotty kids were playing over near Feeney’s candy store.
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 13: He beat her as he had beaten snotty smaller kids long ago.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 225: Hell, she’s twenty-three! That’s no snotty damn kid, man. She’s all woman.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 58: He was just another one in the group of snotty, frightened boys.
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 54: The President [...] muttered something about ‘those snotty Kiwis’.

2. angry, irritated; thus snottiness n., ill-temper, irritation.

1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 102: De Carman miffed and began to be snotty.
1888		S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. 227: Snotty, impudent; also selfish, niggardly, short-tempered.
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 46: snotty —Angry.
1930		D. Hammett Maltese Falcon (1965) 395: Spade picked up the telephone and said: ‘Hello. . . . Yes, Sid, it came out all right, thanks. . . . No. . . . Sure. He got snotty but so did I’.
1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 272: You’re always snotty and you’re always looking for a fight.
1955		B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] Joey was just snotty, with only his snottiness in his favor, the snottiness of a young guy feeling his muscle.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 194: Try as he would to get at least some of the old snottiness from her in lieu of sex, he drew a blank.
1963		M. Spillane Return of the Hood 48: Don’t get snotty.
1976		R. Price Blood Brothers 114: They’re the fuckin’ angriest, meanest, snottiest people goin’.
1993		A. Rodriguez Spidertown (1994) 111: Yo bro’, I don’t think this snottiness is called for.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 213: She got a bit snotty when I told her we only did credit notes.

3. (also snot) superior, snobbish, stuck-up.

1900		Taranaki Herald 26 Nov. 3/1: He came towards the witness on the Veale Road and complained of the ‘— snotty way’ he had been treated.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 713: Theyre so snotty about themselves some of those cads he wasnt a bit like that.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 180: On this afternoon [...] Broncho Billy was ‘snotty’.
1929		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 11 Mar. [synd. col.] [L]ife as a Saks working girl consists of wearing their dress clothes to snotty parties.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 66: You want your snotty puss bashed in a little more. Huh?
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 69: Good job if he’d showed this snotty young bastard Edwards up.
1947		J. Symons Man Called Jones (1949) 72: Not quite a society marriage, is it, Mr. Snotty Hargreaves?
1953		J. Thompson Criminal (1993) 33: Some snotty young girl.
1961		‘Lou Rand’ Gay Detective (2003) 90: Some snotty young queen who used to hang around here shot herself.
1971		B. Moyers Listening to America 279: Listen, you snotty bastard.
1972		C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 93: Some snot kid [...] said, ‘o.k., get your SACKS!’.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 220: Beauchamp could just go to hell with his snotty crack about the VFW.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 93: Except for one miserable summer at a snotty boys’ camp in northern Virginia.
1992		L.A. Times 14 Oct. 13/1: Gore was ‘snotty’ and ‘condescending’.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 44: Some other snotty academy of refined higher education.
1999		Guardian G2 1 Oct. 7: He believes the bar and grill approach to eating out ‘kicked snotty attitudes into touch’.
2000		Guardian Rev. 28 Jan. 11: He was embarrased by this snotty little arse.
2007		N. McCall Them (2008) 145: He shot Barlowe a snotty look.
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] Gina had never in her life been dumped. [...] She didn’t mean to be snotty, but — why would it ever occur to her?
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 25: There’s not much else about the snotty little mare I’ll miss.
2015		http://grey-magazine.com July 🌐 We pass a woman with a snotty designer dog, who looks at me with pure loathing.
2015		G. Disher Heat [ebook] [S]ome snotty tourist off to play golf with his rich buddies.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 18: A right snotty wee bastard.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 21: Madison didn’t like her roommate. She said she was snotty.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 235: ‘Big snotty head on you’.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 66: [A] singsong tone, like a whole choir of snotty kids.
2023		A. Parks To Die in June 169: According to his very snotty secretary, Duncan Kent was in London.