Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- To breathe through an obstruction in the nostrils; blubber; sob; cry.
- noun The red part of a turkey-cock's head.
- noun Snot.
- noun Nautical: A rope so attached to a royal- or topgallant-yardarm that in sending down the yard a tripping-line bent to the free end of the snotter pulls off the lift and brace.
- noun A becket fitted round a boat's mast with an eye to hold the lower end of the sprit which is used to extend the sail.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb Prov. Eng. To snivel; to cry or whine.
- noun (Naut.) A rope going over a yardarm, used to bend a tripping line to, in sending down topgallant and royal yards in vessels of war; also, the short line supporting the heel of the sprit in a small boat.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical A rope going over a
yardarm , used to bend a tripping line to, in sending downtopgallant and royal yards in vessels of war; also, the short line supporting theheel of thesprit in a small boat. - verb To
snivel ; to cry or whine
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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The snotter was a short piece of rope with a loop at each end.
The Scientific American Boy The Camp at Willow Clump Island A. Russell Bond
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* And when I say a green car, I mean an environmentally friendly vehicle and not just something on four wheels that looks a little bit like a snotter.
Love and Marriage Jeff 2007
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What signified his bringing a woman here to snotter and snivel, and bather their Lordships?
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When raising the sail it was first partly hoisted, then the sprit was hooked in the loop and the snotter, after which the throat halyard was drawn taut.
The Scientific American Boy The Camp at Willow Clump Island A. Russell Bond
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Then the snotter was pulled up the mast as far as it would go, flattening out the sail.
The Scientific American Boy The Camp at Willow Clump Island A. Russell Bond
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The sprit was sharpened at each end, and the point at the upper end was inserted in a loop of heavy cord fastened to the peak of the sail, while the lower point of the sprit rested in the loop of a rope on the mast, called a "snotter."
The Scientific American Boy The Camp at Willow Clump Island A. Russell Bond
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You could make a fair thing by 'snotter-hauling,' even if you cannot get on at 'fly-buzzing,' which would suit you well enough; but it's better to stick to one good game, and get as expert at that as you can, for then you don't run so much risk, and you can keep
Six Years in the Prisons of England A Merchant - Anonymous
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What signified his bringing a woman here to snotter and snivel, and bather their Lordships?
The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 1 Walter Scott 1801
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What signified his bringing a woman here to snotter and snivel, and bather their Lordships?
The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete Walter Scott 1801
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Got a 99 bmw 318iS as the daily snotter, 120k miles and still going strong.
Army Rumour Service 2010
chained_bear commented on the word snotter
"... a short rope spliced together at the ends, and served with spun-yarn, or covered with hide: it is seized to the size of the mast, leaving a bight to fit the lower end of the sprit, which it confines to the mast."
—Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 487
October 12, 2008
bilby commented on the word snotter
Snotter proper word.
October 12, 2008
asativum commented on the word snotter
Spitter if it were.
October 12, 2008
dontcry commented on the word snotter
Snotter best work, but snotter her worst either.
October 12, 2008
asativum commented on the word snotter
Snotter? I don't even .. oh, never mind.
October 13, 2008
bilby commented on the word snotter
;-)
October 13, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word snotter
Why they'd think of this term in particular for a type of rope... *thinks*
*checks OED for earliest usage of snot in the sense we suspect*
Here it is:
c1425 Eng. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 636 Hic polipus, snotte.
c1440 Promp. Parv. 462/1 Snothe, fylthe of the nose (S. snotte).
1530 PALSGR. 272/1 Snotte of the nose, rovpye.
1561 T. NORTON Calvin's Inst. IV. 81 That no man should draw snott oute at hys nosethrilles.
1594 NASHE Unfort. Trav. Wks. (Grosart) V. 154 His snot and spittle a hundred tymes he hath put ouer to hys Apothecarie for snowe water.
(and so forth)
Mystery unsolved. It isn't like poop deck, because poop didn't mean what it means now until the late 18th century. But snot... Maybe it has to do with the rope's appearance once it's "seized to the side of the mast."
October 13, 2008
reesetee commented on the word snotter
Maybe it derived from a "knot" word instead. Nautical terms seem to be rife with elisions.
Also, OED seems to suggest that it's a variant of snorter (second definition). And OED's second definition of snort as a noun is nautical slang for snorkel. So maybe. . . .
October 14, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word snotter
Cool. I like my madeupical etymology more, but perhaps that's just because it's far, far grosser. :)
October 14, 2008
reesetee commented on the word snotter
It certainly is. And nothing makes a madeupical term better than its sheer grossout factor.
October 14, 2008
qms commented on the word snotter
A sailor should be a good knotter
And know how to rig his lines tauter:
So master the riches
Of bowline and hitches
And humble but mem'rable snotter.
February 21, 2017