Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to rob, to steal; thus sneaking n., stealing; sneaked adj., stolen; sneakster n. a thief.

1614		T. Tomkis Albumazar III iii: Is not this brauer then sneake all night in danger, Picking of lockes, or hooking cloathes at windowes?
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: Sneaking securing and conveying away any property.
1812		Vaux Memoirs in McLachlan (1964) 82: Lest the reader should be unprovided with a cant dictionary, I shall briefly explain in succession: viz., sneaking [...] Entering a house or shop, unobserved, and stealing whatever is most come-at-able.
1821		Flash Dict. [as cit. 1809].
1835		Worcester Herald 26 Dec. 4/3: Sneaking, stealing any tghing from a house; a sneakster a petty thief.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 32 128/2: [G]entlemen engaged in the soft (forged notes), the hard (smashing), ramping, sneaking, doing a panny, making a reader, or picking up a cat and her kittens — the cat being a quart pot and the kittens pints!
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 83: sneaking Conveying away stolen goods.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 304/2: The boys [...] go about cadging and sneaking (begging and committing petty felonies).
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 84/2: There it was stowed away among bunches of ‘sneaked’ candles, bars of soap, halves and quarters of cheese, &c.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 26 Oct. n.p.: If there was a good chance to ‘sneak’ from a bank or a hotel they didn’t let it pass.
1870		(con. 1800s) Leeds Times 7 May6/6: These youths practised [...] thirteen different ‘lays’ including [...] ‘swaking,’ [sic] or creeping into unguarded places and stealing what first came to hand.
1877		S. James Vagabond Papers 3rd series 136: At home, now, it’s the opposite—a good magsman wouldn’t sneak, or be seen with a sneaker.
1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 25: He had been ‘lagged’ for having ‘sneaked’ a costermonger’s barrow and contents.
1894		A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 54: Skulky’s ’opped the twig an’ sneaked your tools. Gawd knows where ’e is by now.
1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 5 Oct. 4/1: Who was the Coburg toff that sneaked Willie the butchers stick.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 91: Dog-sneaking [...] is useful when times are dull. [Ibid.] 161: You may sneak his beer, you may put him in a dust-bin.
1909		Dayton Herald (OH) 29 Jan. 13/6: He sneaked it better than you did for he sneaked it out of the lot.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 103: Wot would yous do if a bloke tried ter sneak yer moll?
1916		Sun. Times (Perth) 25 June 6s/8: One of the ‘mice’ (tea-and-sugar bushrangers) living a furtive life in a Perth coffee palace had sneaked a pair of shoes.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 39: Palling up to unsuspicious people in hotels and sneaking their jewellery.
1938		N. Lindsay Age Of Consent 183: All right, I won’t sneak any more Mender’s fowls.
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 8: Stealing or appropriating [...] sneak (q.v.; perhaps never of genuine stealing).
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 80: Why, he’d sneak the hay the cocky was sleeping on.
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 61: I figure he was planning to sneak the hotel.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 500: You can always go down and talk to one of the other posts and sneak a cigarette.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 172: He has sneaked a valuable silver porringer of mine.
1977		K. Gilbert Living Black 25: Over in our state, blackfellows weren’t allowed to drink so they used to sneak the drink.

2. to act in a surreptitious manner, esp. when looking for something to steal; to conduct an illegal business (see cite 1974); thus sneaking adj.

1829		Life and Death of James Wilson n.p.: That awful monster, William Burke, Like Reynard sneaking on the lurk [F&H].
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II 2nd series 30: That there ’ere sneaking feller got on the blind side of she.
1852		Thackeray Henry Esmond (1898) 40: You sneaking pigskin cobbler.
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 46: It’s always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 233: What — you had to sneak to get it? Bah! Them and their blunny laws!
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 108: Some low bounder sneaked in last night and snitched them as I slept.
1968		Dandy 30 Nov. n.p.: Fancy that hairy horror sneaking in against his orders!
1974		G. Radano Stories Cops Only Tell Each Other 188: ‘If he’s got to sneak his operation,’ the lieutenant argues with anger, ‘why pay us for Christmas? He’s not sneaking. We’re letting him operate.’.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 68: We snuck around a lot.
1988		Beano Comic Library No. 145 39: Thought you’d sneak up on us, eh?
1998		D. Hecht Skull Session 307: I snuck down to call you.
2000		Observer mag. 9 Jan. 11: Orlando had reportedly snuck in at the back.
2017		Tampa Bay Times (FL) 31 May B7/6: He looked around for somewhere to sneak a sketch.

3. (usu. UK juv.) to tell tales on one’s fellows; thus sneaking adj. [sneak n.¹ (4)].

1759		J. Townley High Life Below Stairs II i: He is one of your sneaking half-bred Fellows, that prefers his Master’s Interest to his own.
1765		H. Howard Choice Spirits Museum 65: We’ll quaff the social Hours away, Nor heed what sneaking Codgers say.
1821		‘Letter from a Highwayman’ in Morn. Post 13 Dec. 4/3: He is a d—’d sniveller at bottom; I always told him so, and was afraid of his snicking [sic] from the first.
1862		F.W. Farrar St Winifred’s (1863) 312: ‘We can’t have you sneaking about it.’ [...] ‘I don’t want to sneak,’ said Charles firmly.
1882		‘F. Anstey’ Vice Versa (1931) 59: This sneaking dodge is all very well for Chawner. Chawner could do that sort of thing without getting sat upon. [Ibid.] 196: Has Chawner been sneaking again?
1897		Kipling ‘Slaves of the Lamp — Part I’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 61: Of course Manders sneaked to Mason.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 1 Dec. 131: If anyone so much as laid a finger on him, he was almost bound to sneak.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 12: An artful oily beggar, with a trick of getting your confidence and betraying it, which in school and college is called ‘sneaking’.
1943		‘Henry Green’ Caught (2001) 102: As if I’d lower myself by putting the squeak in, to sneak.
1950		A. Buckeridge Jennings Goes To School 37: He ticked him off for sneaking.
1956		A. Burgess Time for a Tiger 93: Also there was the big public school tradition of not sneaking.
1997		D. Farson Never a Normal Man 53: I was rash enough to show one of her daughters-in-law who promptly sneaked.

4. (UK Und.) of a prisoner, to escape surreptitiously.

1812

Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 266: One or more prisoners having escaped from their confinement by stealth, without using any violence, or alarming their keepers, are said to have sneak’d ’em, or given it to ’em upon the sneak.

5. to remove surreptitiously.

1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor (1968) III 139: I sneaks my things out, and dresses at a public-house.
1900		Marvel 12 Nov. 11: Sneaked birds out of your back-garden?
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 202: Sneak the ball from him any way you can get at it.

6. (UK Und.) to seduce someone’s wife or lover.

1865

Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 41/2: Tim had taken lodgings at Tommy’s a short time before Tommy got ‘sneaked’. [Ibid.] 133/1: But, I say, you must help me to ‘sneak’ that little ‘moll,’ Mary Ann.

7. (US, also sneak off) to slip away quietly; occas. to enter surreptitiously.

1839		F.J. Grund Aristocracy in America I vi 25: [P]erceiving that he had mistaken his place [...] he ‘sneaked off,’ if possible, with a stronger hatred and contempt for the haughty aristocracy of New York .
1886		Lantern (N.O.) 6 Oct. 3: He has sneaked, never to return again to this city.
1888		Oshkosh Northwestern (WI) 19 Oct. 2/3: The fox [...] tried to sneak off.
1894		C.W. Gardner Doctor and the Devil 47: We left the ‘Tight House,’ [...] and ‘sneaked’ (that’s Bayard street for left the place), and went to a German house.
1900		T. Dreiser Sister Carrie 472: You’d better sneak.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 61: Now sneak while the sneakin’s good, old top!
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 19: I sneaked softly out of my bush and raced for the front door.
1934		D.L. Sayers Nine Tailors (1984) 193: And sneaked off on the Saturday night. Why?
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 25: He sneaks off each summer.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 127: I waited [...] till I figured the coast was clear, then I snuck out.
1960		‘Nino Culotta’ Cop This Lot 191: Sneak the dinin’ car away while we’re eatin’, an’ every bastard tries ter stop us getting back.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 228: He’s a crafty bastard. He parks his motor up the road and sneaks in by the back way.
1987		B. Chatwin Songlines 159: Thought you could sneak off without saying goodbye?
1999		Indep. Rev. 24 July 1: Sneaking off and holding hands in the back row of the movies.
2000		Indep. 10 Jan. 9: Most employees already sneak off for a quick sleep during the day.
2008		Republic(Columbus, IN) 9 Dec. 7/2No wonder they sneak off to the bar!:

8. to get away with.

1978

P. Theroux Picture Palace 25: He touched the back of his hand to his lips when he did it, like a small boy sneaking a giggle.

9. to make a surprise attack.

1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 59: It was critical to sneak a man, to find some way to catch him off guard.
2003		Guardian 2 May 18/1: ‘We knew we’d have to sneak him — kill him without permission,’ Capo said.

10. (US black) to hit someone hard in the face.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 sneak Definition: to hit one hard in the face. Example: I’ll sneak the shit out o’ you.