sneak

«sneak» in Mova's school dictionary: to go somewhere quietly and secretly so nobody sees or… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (sneak, sneaks, sneaked/snuck, sneaking); noun (a sneak, sneaks); adjective (sneak — a sneak peek)

meaning for a pupil

1) To sneak is to go somewhere quietly and secretly so nobody sees or hears you. tree →

2) To sneak something is to take or do it secretly: «sneak a biscuit». tree →

3) A sneak is a person who does things secretly or tells tales on others (UK, informal). tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories characters sneak past guards or sneak downstairs at night. In lessons about honesty, sneaking things is a kind of trick or lie. Phrases: «sneak in», «sneak out», «sneak up on», «sneak a look», «a sneak peek», «sneak attack».

examples

• We sneaked into the kitchen for a midnight snack. tree →
• The cat sneaked up on the bird. tree →
• He tried to sneak a look at my answers. tree →
• Don't sneak out without telling your parents. tree →
• Here's a sneak peek of the new book! tree →
• She snuck a sweet into her pocket. tree →
• Now, one day Edmund made a new lantern out of something chemical that he sneaked from the school laboratory. tree →

note

Past: «sneaked» (standard, UK and US) or «snuck» (common in the US, informal). Adjective: «sneaky». «Sneakers» (US) are trainers — soft shoes you can move quietly in.

In the corpora

• Not for playing a demo, his mum said, but for sneaking.
• A calm, polite request with good reasons is more likely to be listened to than nagging or sneaking.
• In Galway, Darragh sneaks a biscuit and Aoibheann says nothing; next day she sneaks one and he says nothing.
• Sneaking out at night is dangerous because nobody knows where you are if something goes wrong.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «sneak» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.