What's the difference between snide and supercilious?

Snide


Definition:

  • (a.) Tricky; deceptive; contemptible; as, a snide lawyer; snide goods.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In the often misogynistic climate that exists online, anything with the word women in the title can attract hostility ranging from the snide to the offensive, but Mayer said the worst abuse has come from Radio 4 fans.
  • (2) If you are so desperately concerned for your athletes and your team that you need to write snide, lazy things on the internet about Rio or Brazil to make yourself feel better; or if you feel angry or betrayed or frustrated by what’s about to happen in Rio because you genuinely believe the US would do a better job and be the perfect Olympic host, I suggest you channel some of that energy, or at the very least some funds, into the LA 2024 bid .
  • (3) England have not beaten their neighbours from across the Channel since 1974 and the slenderness of the scoreline, with the two side’s separated only by Eugénie Le Sommer’s first-half strike, disguises the superiority of a French side now clear favourites to top Group F. Granted Les Bleus could have had Camille Abily sent off for a snide elbow on Laura Bassett but by then victory was all but secured.
  • (4) She said the bullying by the paper was renewed with vigour when 20 years later she said she still objected to Page 3 with half-naked women calling at her home and making snide comments about her body.
  • (5) These events take place as we enter the last stretch in the London mayoral race , where a Labour politician has been subjected to smears and snide toots on the dog-whistle to remind voters of his religion.
  • (6) Ian Flintoff Oxford • This election is becoming increasingly blurred as the facial expressions and gestures of the combatants become magnified under the unforgiving eye of the TV cameras and the spin doctors regurgitate the views of their representatives and add their own snide remarks.
  • (7) I knew I represented different people: stay-at-home mums, Muslims, the [British] Bangladeshi community ... [and] for each and every bit of me, someone has accepted me and said, ‘You have done a really good job for us; she seems like a good mum, she’s done well for Muslims, and the Bengalis are proud.” Though Bake Off’s viewers admired her not just for her technical skill but for her witty one-liners and infectiously expressive facial features, rightwing commentators did make some snide comments about political correctness being behind her success, with the Daily Mail columnist Amanda Platell saying that the eliminated contestant Flora Shedden might have done better if she had made a “chocolate mosque”.
  • (8) Most of it is limited to publicly naming those workers, to ostracize them, and making snide comments.
  • (9) You could also detect its beginnings in some of the supposed social comment associated with Britpop - not least the snide songs about forlorn proletarian lives that were briefly the calling card of Blur's Damon Albarn, who affected a mewling "Essex" accent, but was in fact raised in one of that county's more upscale corners.
  • (10) We'll click 'share', we'll rofl, we'll offer snide remarks on Twitter, and emoji each other our amazement at the whole thing in endless combinations of cartoon faces.
  • (11) People who disagree with me often don’t merely say so – they lob personal attacks or make cruel and snide remarks.
  • (12) "It's snide, dirty and, I think, a sexist trick," he said.
  • (13) The government of Maximos,” he said in snide reference to the aides that have surrounded Tsipras in his prime ministerial office, “neither gave the power to the people nor work to the people.
  • (14) Although Rendell did not like the title often bestowed on her – queen of crime – calling it snide and sexist, she did not go along with the many reviewers, among them AN Wilson and PD James , who called her a great novelist.
  • (15) During his first two stints as president, the former KGB agent demonstrated his gift at G8 gatherings and other international get-togethers for sardonic repartee mixed with snide remarks about western hypocrisy and double-dealing.
  • (16) Frank Underwood is an absolutely classic villain, in fact he’s actually just one step away from Snidely Whiplash, but Birgitte Nyborg – I think that is a very interesting role because it shows all of the stresses between family life, political life, the compromises that have to be made.
  • (17) My kids I worry about more, with parents of other kids reading it and making snide comments.
  • (18) There has to be the equivalent of a drumroll when [1960s cartoon villain] Snidely Whiplash comes in because – God help us – we can't have complexity.
  • (19) Expect to see this play out in snide, deniable, but nonetheless bitter actions for months to come.
  • (20) Every day, blogs like Men Taking Up Too Much Space On The Train post clandestine pictures of commuters, under the snide and self-proclaimed mission of public shaming.

Supercilious


Definition:

  • (a.) Lofty with pride; haughty; dictatorial; overbearing; arrogant; as, a supercilious officer; asupercilious air; supercilious behavior.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Comment is perfectly legitimate, but the sneering, supercilious, specious and dismissive contributions masquerading as ‘commentary’ belittle the claims of a ‘quality’ paper.” Before attempting to assess the validity of the reader’s analysis – broadly shared by some other readers – I think his email reflects one or two other interesting aspects of the demographics of the Guardian’s readership and the left.
  • (2) After former tabloid editor Piers Morgan was fired from CNN , there were warnings that the US media was now poisoned to British accents and supposed superciliousness.
  • (3) But when I saw the advert it occurred to me that it, and that supercilious exclamation mark in particular, could in fact give people an excuse to express their homophobia.
  • (4) A decade later when I met him again in a hotel suite in London, it was more Mona Lisa than Cheshire Cat - coolly supercilious, ultimately indecipherable.
  • (5) It was often veiled, supercilious and sinister, but on screen he made us an offer we couldn't refuse.
  • (6) So the relationship that begins at the Milford railway station (it's two metaphorical stops down the line from Borchester – The Archers began five years after Brief Encounter) with a piece of grit in Laura's eye and Alec's unquestionably clean handkerchief will lead to afternoons together, lunch and a visit to the cinema (their silly movie is called Flames of Passion), a country drive, and an awkward trip to a friend's flat (the supercilious Valentine Dyall).
  • (7) Recently, I have caught myself saying something in everyday conversation that a few years ago would have elicited a cry of “supercilious wanker” from me if I’d heard someone else say it.
  • (8) Brexit, said Putin, was a result of irritation over Britain subsidising weaker economies, and “the British government’s self-assuredness and supercilious attitude to life-changing decisions in their own country and Europe in general”.
  • (9) I was made to regret it almost immediately when I was loudly condemned as a “supercilious prick”.
  • (10) Shimell's character is very supercilious and unsympathetic – he has a Basil Fawlty-esque fit of temper in a restaurant – and it is not easy to tell if this is deliberate, or if Kiarostami thinks Shimell elegant and cerebral.
  • (11) To others, though, he is at his supercilious worst here; floating the idea that, having withdrawn from the union, Scotland, in its beneficence, can turn round and preach to the English about how to deal with the nasty Tories.
  • (12) Their particular brand of upper class snobbery is now so anachronistic it’s simply amusing: in an obituary this week of Deborah , the writer pointed to a list of the late Duchess of Devonshire’s dislikes, which included but was not limited to “the bits of paper that fall out of magazines; female weather forecasters; the words ‘environment’, ‘conservation’ and ‘leisure’; supercilious assistants at makeup counters; dietary fads; skimmed milk; girls with slouching shoulders and Tony Blair.” And then there are the Nazis.
  • (13) You know when you're out walking and you see a party of riders, and they give you a slightly supercilious look?
  • (14) President Barack Obama is often criticised for superciliousness and arrogance.
  • (15) Now usually it would be advisable to ignore such news and treat in the same way as someone telling you that the sun is "hot and yellow", Piers Morgan is "smug and annoying", Katie Hopkins is "snobbish and supercilious" and the Mill is "tired and emotional" — it's just the way of life.