snuck
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snuck
(snŭk)v.
A past tense and a past participle of sneak. See Usage Note at sneak.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
snuck
(snʌk)vb
chiefly not standard US and Canadian a past tense and past participle of sneak
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
sneak
(snik)v. sneaked or snuck, sneak•ing,
n., adj. v.i.
1. to go in a stealthy or furtive manner; slink; skulk.
2. to act in a furtive or underhand way.
v.t. 3. to move, put, pass, etc., in a stealthy or furtive manner: He sneaked the gun into his pocket.
4. to do, take, or have hurriedly or surreptitiously: to sneak a cigarette.
n. 5. a sneaking, underhand, or contemptible person.
6. a stealthy or furtive departure.
adj. 8. stealthy; surreptitious: a sneak raid.
[1590–1600; obscurely akin to Middle English sniken, Old English snīcan to creep, c. Old Norse snīkja to hanker after]
syn: See lurk.
usage: First recorded in writing near the end of the 19th century in the U.S., snuck has become in recent decades a standard variant past tense and past participle: Bored by the lecture, we snuck out the side door. snuck occurs frequently in fiction, in journalism, and on radio and television, whereas sneaked is more likely in highly formal or belletristic writing. snuck is the only spoken past tense and past participle for many younger and middle-aged persons of all educational levels in the U.S. and Canada. It has occasionally been considered nonstandard but is so widely used by professional writers and educated speakers that it can no longer be so regarded.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.