Other forms: sniggering
To snigger is to laugh quietly and unkindly. Half suppressed, and usually at somebody.
The concealment is the point, since sniggering happens at the back of a room where the person cannot quite hear. It suits schoolboys and meetings in equal measure. British English says snigger and American English says snicker, and they mean exactly the same thing. It sits alongside titter, which is nervous rather than cruel, and guffaw, which is loud and open.
1verbsniggerTo laugh quietly and unkindly at someone.
“Two of them sniggered at the back of the class.”
Also accepted in games: snicker
British variant pronunciation and spelling of snicker.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, Body Language & Gestures
First appears in chapter 7 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word