Etymology From Middle English snowte, snout, snute, from Old English *snūt, *snūte or Middle Low German snûte, from Proto-West Germanic *snūt, from Proto-Germanic *snūtaz. Compare Saterland Frisian Snuute (“snout”), West Frisian snút (“snout”), Dutch snuit or snoet (“snout; cute face”), German Low German Snuut (“snout”), German Schnauze, Schnute (“snout”). Doublet of snoot.
The long, projecting nose, mouth, and jaw of a beast, as of pigs.
The pig rooted around in the dirt with its snout.
2
The front of the prow of a ship or boat.
The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.1944, Miles Burton, The Three Corpse Trick, chapter 5:
His glasses kept slipping further down onto his prominent snout.
Whether his snout a perfect nose is, And not an elephant's proboscis1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
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The bitter laugh laughs at that which is not good, it is the ethical laugh. The hollow laugh laughs at that which is not true, it is the intellectual laugh. Not good! Not true! Well well. But the mirthless laugh is the dianoetic laugh, down the snout — Haw! — so.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
4
The nozzle of a pipe, hose, etc.
If you place the snout right into the bucket, it won't spray as much.
5
The anterior prolongation of the head of a gastropod; a rostrum.
6
The anterior prolongation of the head of weevils and allied beetles; a rostrum.
(Bob, p. 55:) Charlie was the most vicious screw on the block ... He caught me with the two ounces of snout right in my hand, caught me by the hair, and swung me round in the exercise yard ... (Spider, p. 175:) She brings me snout and sweets, and sometimes a cake from Mum.1967, Len Deighton, Only When I Larf:
LIZ. I only got one left. / FRED (calls). Get us some snout. / MIKE. Five or ten?1982, Edward Bond, Saved:
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Also he was "doing his nut" for some "snout." I said I would provide cigarettes.2000, Joe Randolph Ackerley, P N Furbank, We Think the World of You:
Raymond rolled a neat cigarette. "What about some snout, then?" "No, thanks." He laughed. Smoke drifted from his open mouth.2004, Allan Sillitoe, New and Collected Stories:
Etymology From Middle English snowte, snout, snute, from Old English *snūt, *snūte or Middle Low German snûte, from Proto-West Germanic *snūt, from Proto-Germanic *snūtaz. Compare Saterland Frisian Snuute (“snout”), West Frisian snút (“snout”), Dutch snuit or snoet (“snout; cute face”), German Low German Snuut (“snout”), German Schnauze, Schnute (“snout”). Doublet of snoot.