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# snoop

«snoop» in Mova's school dictionary: **to look secretly around a place or into someone's private…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (snoop, snoops, snooped, snooping); noun (a snoop, snoops)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To snoop is to look secretly around a place or into someone's private things to find out about them. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/snoop/#m1)

2) A snoop is a person who snoops, someone nosy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/snoop/#m2)

3) (informal) To snoop on someone is to spy on them or watch what they do. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/snoop/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday life snooping means poking into things that are not yours, like reading someone's diary or looking in drawers; it is seen as rude. In stories detectives and nosy neighbours snoop to find clues. Phrases: «snoop around», «snoop on someone», «snoop through», «a nosy snoop».

### examples

- Stop snooping in my bag! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/snoop/#x1)
- My little brother snooped around my room while I was out. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/snoop/#x2)
- The detective snooped through the old letters looking for a clue. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/snoop/#x3)
- Our neighbour is such a snoop; she always watches from her window. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/snoop/#x4)
- I caught him snooping on my phone. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/snoop/#x5)
- The cat snooped about the kitchen for scraps. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/snoop/#x6)
- Apps should not snoop on what children do online. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/snoop/#x7)

### note

Mostly informal. Past: snooped. Usually negative: calling someone a snoop is a mild insult. Similar: pry, nose about, spy. «Snoopy» is the name of a famous cartoon dog, and «snoopy» (adjective) means nosy.

### In the corpora

- [Snooping means looking at things that are meant for someone else: diaries, messages, letters, desks, conversations through a door.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/356-peeking-at-presents-diaries-and-letters/9/)
- [Asking is honest; snooping is taking what was not given.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/356-peeking-at-presents-diaries-and-letters/15/)
- [Snooping can hurt the snooper too: you may read something unkind about yourself.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/356-peeking-at-presents-diaries-and-letters/22/)
- [Not being caught does not stop the guilty feeling that often comes with snooping.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/356-peeking-at-presents-diaries-and-letters/24/)
- [Other snoops end the same way.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/357-snooping-on-phones-bags-calls-and-codes/12/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «snoop» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/snoop/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.