Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who sneaks.
  • noun A shoe designed for outdoor activity, usually made of canvas with a rubber sole.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who sneaks; one who wants spirit; a sneak.
  • noun A drinking-vessel: a kind of punch-bowl.
  • noun Same as grub, 4.
  • noun plural Low heelless canvas shoes with rubber soles.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who sneaks.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A vessel of drink.
  • noun A type of soft shoe with a flat, pliable, typically rubber or other soft sole, and canvas-like upper, used in sports such as tennis, or for comfort. Called sneaker because they give no warning of one's approach. Usually used in the pl.
  • noun obsolete A punch bowl.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who sneaks.
  • noun An athletic shoe with a soft, rubber sole.
  • noun UK, dialect, archaic A vessel of drink.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police
  • noun a canvas shoe with a pliable rubber sole

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The word sneaker entered the language in the 1870s; the rubber soles made the shoes quiet and therefore "sneaky."

    CNN.com 2012

  • At that moment, a wave broke against the shore -- a big wave, what we call sneaker waves in Oregon -- and it splashed us, grabbing at her potion and trying to take it out to sea.

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2004

  • Nice Kicks is an online magazines for shoe-enthusiasts and has “established itself as the leader in sneaker information on the web.”

    blog – syllable studio 2009

  • A cross training sneaker is a sneaker meant to be worn while training for something, not for running to the doctor's office, the supermarket, dropping the kids off at school, yada, yada, yada.

    Clinton Kelley Tells NPR Listeners 'What Not To Wear' 2010

  • But that was all I could afford, and I made even those last by using this stuff called Goop which was a kind of plastic caulk to repair rips in sneaker soles.

    MORE FROM GINNY BATES: ALLIE Maggie Jochild 2007

  • All the kids are too busy working in Chinese sneaker factories.

    "Wooden Squirrel Cage Machine Obsesses Over Your Thoughts For You." Ann Althouse 2008

  • Shares in German sneaker maker Puma climbed 6.1% as the firm posted a 2% rise in 2007 net profit to €269 million ($400.2 million) following a good performance in Asia.

    Shares End Higher on Financials 2008

  • That's partly because the event is a congregation of the kind of players who are used prominently in sneaker marketing or even have their own signature shoes.

    USATODAY.com - All-Stars and new footwear a perfect fit 2005

  • The Era looking low top sneaker from the Japanese brand comes in grey terry cotton and in black and blue inside-out terry cotton, making the sneaker certainly stand out, but not in a too obvious way.

    Highsnobiety.com 2009

  • The movies they’ve chosen are “moving” in the way that a sneaker is a shoe.

    TMP: Truly insidious Moral Piety from the Heartland » Scene-Stealers 2009

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