How to Use snippy in a Sentence

snippy

adjective
  • I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get snippy with you.
  • There is no need to be snippy to your baby’s close relatives.
    — Judith Martin, The Mercury News, 5 Aug. 2019
  • Arthur Smith gets downright snippy if anyone tries to bring up the past in Atlanta.
    — Paul Newberry, ajc, 12 Sep. 2022
  • Why wasn’t that snippy Mi Kyong being asked to stay after all her goof-ups?
    — Chicago Tribune, chicagotribune.com, 2 June 2018
  • Jex made a snippy remark to Katie, who was cleaning, then marched into their basement bedroom.
    — The Salt Lake Tribune, 6 Oct. 2020
  • There’s a fair bit of mirth in all this, and in Glanz’s brittle, snippy dialogue, which is abetted by the casting.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 4 June 2026
  • Biden and his campaign were quick to offer snippy responses about Trump before the election.
    — Naomi Lim, Washington Examiner, 2 Dec. 2020
  • The pygmy marmosets are deeply adorable, and the snippy gharials would make excellent Muppets.
    — Margaret Lyons, New York Times, 8 Mar. 2018
  • What was supposed to be the nice-guy tête-à-tête was instead a snippy, tit-for-tat exchange in the key of conventional politics.
    — Alexander Burns, New York Times, 5 Oct. 2016
  • Nick and the girls laugh at Melissa, who is stressed out and snippy, sending them on errands, frantically cleaning the house.
    — Meaghan O'Connell, Longreads, 20 July 2017
  • But as the debate wore on, the exchanges between the candidates grew increasingly snippy.
    — Seema Mehta, latimes.com, 10 May 2017
  • Employees said that some people who walked in without masks had made snippy remarks, but that all of them had followed the health protocols after they were reminded.
    — Dallas News, 10 Mar. 2021
  • Imagine Regina tossing off snippy burns and getting a peek inside Aaron's (beautiful) head.
    — Hannah Orenstein, Seventeen, 10 Mar. 2017
  • Adelman remained snippy after a Game 5 win back home at Ball Arena on Monday.
    — Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 1 May 2026
  • Yes, there are moments that offend, but Batt finds a precise balance between being snappy without becoming snippy.
    — Theodore P. Mahne, NOLA.com, 14 May 2018
  • Francis is portrayed as snippy and effete, but his politics are more uncompromising than Bernie Sanders’.
    — Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2021
  • Bryan Banville in particular seems to be everywhere in roles from snippy narrator to extra-sensitive prince to taunting French knight.
    — James Hebert, sandiegouniontribune.com, 2 July 2018
  • No parents want to inflict emotional harm on their children, which is why most people strenuously avoid even getting snippy with their parents in front of the kids—and the guilt when an argument does break out can be immense.
    — Sara Rowe Mount, Parents, 30 Oct. 2025
  • For once, Miranda really sticks up for herself where Che is concerned, saying she’s been nothing but supportive after Che gets snippy with her.
    — Aimée Lutkin, ELLE, 20 July 2023
  • With the unlikely help of the snippy Teng (Andy Yu), Morrow learns that Petrovich was sneaking out of his cryo-pod to conspire with Kavalier.
    — Noel Murray, Vulture, 3 Sep. 2025
  • So Danny and Tess, and thus Clooney and Roberts, have to generate enough heat and chemistry underneath the snippy surface to justify everything else in the movie.
    — Jason Bailey, New York Times, 21 Oct. 2022
  • His latest client just happens to be his sister-in-law Gwen (Mary-Louise Parker, at her most snippy and vocal-fried), the daughter of a late magazine publisher.
    — Jordan Hoffman, HWD, 23 Jan. 2017
  • But anyone who’s ever been crushed by a boss’s snippy retort during a meeting or felt humiliated after their manager lost their temper can attest that what seems like a small moment to a leader can feel like a very big deal to the underlings.
    — Sarah Todd, Quartz, 12 May 2021
  • In a high-pressure world of presidential campaigns, her arrival brought some measure of stability to the traveling roadshows and a professionalism to exhausted and snippy candidates.
    — Philip Elliott, TIME, 20 May 2024
  • House members getting snippy over constraints and badgering Senate colleagues to discard their precious gentleman’s rules is a regular facet of every reconciliation process.
    — Jim Newell, Slate Magazine, 13 Mar. 2017
  • After interconnected satellites positioned around the planet to stop severe weather malfunction, the creative mastermind (Gerard Butler) who was fired for his snippy attitude is brought back to solve the issues.
    — Philly.com, 29 Oct. 2017
  • Javier Ignacio is both soothing and snippy as the Beast’s confidante Cogsworth, a clock, while Cameron Monroe Thomas adds vivacity to the dour castle as the feather duster Babette.
    — Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 9 Apr. 2026
  • While much of The Devil Wears Prada cast is remembered for delivering iconic lines, many of them are snippy, and well, lacking manners — especially Miranda's dry, dark humor.
    — Jordana Comiter, PEOPLE, 1 May 2026
  • McKellen lands every snippy bon mot and backhanded compliment that Julian doles out, but Coel makes every crack in Lori’s facade really count, as the mystery behind her commitment to Julian unfurls.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 10 Apr. 2026
  • Fortunately, the emotional spar fest between the queen of withering glares and snippy comments — award winner Allison Janney — and the onstage king of stammering self involvement — Andrew Rannells — clicks in director/writer Jim Rash dramedy debut.
    — Randy Myers, Mercury News, 28 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'snippy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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