sneaker
Pluralsneakers
- 1An athletic shoe with a soft rubber sole, worn for sports or casual wear.
He laced up his sneakers for an early morning jog.
Each sneaker had a thick rubber sole that gripped the track.
Similartrainer
Note
The shoe takes its name from the person who sneaks, because a soft rubber sole lets the wearer move quietly. Sneaker is the everyday word in the US, Atlantic Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Trainer names the same shoe, so a reader who meets both is looking at a difference of region, not of footwear. In ordinary use the word is almost always plural, as in a pair of sneakers.
- 2A person who moves or acts quietly and secretly to avoid being noticed.
He was a sneaker who always arrived late without anyone seeing him.
The sneakers among the staff took long breaks whenever the boss stepped out.
Note
The formation behind the word is plain: sneak plus the agent suffix -er, 'one who does it.' The word carries disapproval as well as stealth. In Charles Lamb's Elia (1823) the sneaker is less a prowler than a shirker. He is the man who holds aloof on a festival day while everyone else joins in, and Lamb is glad to be 'none of those sneakers.'
- 3A male that achieves matings by stealth, slipping past dominant males rather than competing directly for access to females.
In this fish, a sneaker hovers near the nest and releases sperm during spawning.
Researchers tagged several sneakers to track their reproductive success over a season.
Note
A biologist's shortening of the full term sneaker male, which is still used alongside it. The tactic need not be permanent. Faye Flam's The Score (2008) describes sneakers that carry on indefinitely, or that grow rapidly into an alpha male once a dominant male dies or disappears. Read the word as naming a reproductive strategy, not a fixed kind of animal.
Less common meanings
- 4A small vessel holding a serving of drink, especially warm liquor or punch.
She poured a sneaker of mulled wine for each guest at the inn.
Empty sneakers lined the tavern shelf after the long winter evening.
Note
A drinking word from British dialect, now archaic and best kept to historical or period writing. It takes of and a measure of its contents, the way bowl or jug does. The phrase 'about a sneaker of five gallons' pictures a vessel shared by a whole company rather than a single cup, so it is safer not to assume the sneaker was small.
- 5A large cup, or small basin, fitted with a matching saucer and a cover.
He lifted the cover from the sneaker to let the hot broth cool.
The tea set included two sneakers, each with its own saucer and lid.
Note
An archaic word from Indian English for a piece of covered tableware. What sets it apart from the British drinking vessel is its fittings: the saucer and cover belong to the definition, not just its contents. It now belongs to historical description. A modern reader is far more likely to take the word as a shoe, so it needs context.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "sneak" plus the suffix "-er." The sense referring to the shoes points to how quiet they are to walk in.