snook
/snuːk/ noun, verb, proper noun
Also a form of snoek
Forms snooks snooking snooked snoek
- noun A freshwater and marine fish of the family Centropomidae in the order Perciformes.
- noun Centropomus undecimalis (common snook).
- noun Any of various other ray-finned fishes in several families.
- verb To fish for snook.
- noun (UK, derogatory, as a gesture) A disrespectful gesture, performed by placing the tip of a thumb on one's nose with the fingers spread, and typically while wiggling the fingers back and forth.
- verb (obsolete) To sniff out.
- verb (obsolete) To lurk; to lie in ambush.
- proper noun A surname.
Etymology
From Dutch snoek (“pike, Esox”). Doublet of snoek; perhaps more distantly related to snake.
From the 19th century. Uncertain origin, but probably a variant of snoke. Compare also sneck (“nose”). These words are partly sound-symbolic, given the similarity to snoot, snout, sniff, sneeze etc.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [Prov. E. snook to search out, to follow by the scent; cf. Sw. snoka to lurk, LG. snöggen, snuckern, snökern, to snuffle, to smell about, to search for.]
Etymology [D. snoek.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “snook”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details