Snark

/snɑː(ɹ)k/ · noun

Meaning

an attitude or expression of mocking irreverence and sarcasm..

Definitions by Sense

1. an attitude or expression of mocking irreverence and sarcasm.
2. To express oneself in a snarky fashion.
3. (obsolete) To snort.
4. (literary) The fictional creature of Lewis Carroll's poem, used allusively to refer to fruitless quest or search.
5. (mathematics) A graph in which every node has three branches, and the edges cannot be coloured in fewer than four colours without two edges of the same colour meeting at a point.
6. (particle physics) A fluke or unrepeatable result or detection in an experiment.

Example Sentences

Brit-wit, in fact, could be seen as the precursor to the communicative style valorized on these beratement panels and on fan/rating communities, namely snark or snarkasm. Snark, a hybrid of “snide” and “remark," is a biting, casual verbal attack. Its subtle insult comprises a tone that acts as a weapon to cut its target down to size.

Snark will get you any way it can, fore and aft, and to hell with consistency. In a media society, snark is an easy way of seeming smart. […] Snark doesn't create a new image, a new idea. It's parasitic, referential, insinuating.

She liked his smile. There was neither snark nor megalomania in it, as characterized so many smiles these days.

Other would-be Bright Young People, Lytton Strachey snarked, seemed to have “just a few feathers where brains should be.”

Ah! That was "snark". You snark when your blood sugar is low. I know how to help you. Pizza. Humans seem to find calm in the consumption of food.

When the auctioneer had exhausted his vocabulary in describing the merits of an animal, his winding-up formula was "One times! two times! three times!" Then the hammer gave a tap, and he and our party would devote our energies to discovering the last bidder - a research which generally was as promising as the hunting of the snark.

Remy said Dad was hunting snarks; at the time, she'd thought it was a euphemism.

Cabrera's Valentine's Day monopole detection or some extremely energetic cosmic rays could be examples of snarks.

Synonyms for snark

Antonyms for snark

Related Words

Word Forms

• snarks
• snarking
• snarked

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

Practice and Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions