Merriam-Webster defines "snow job" as a noun.
Is there any chance I can get away with using it as a verb?
As in, "He thought he could snow-job her into going along with his scheme."
Asked
Active
Viewed 35 times
2
-
1Does this answer your question? "(Noun) the sh*t out of this" — What nouns work? I know that isn't your exact sentence, but the answers explain when we can use a noun as a verb and might be helpful. – ColleenV Feb 17 '23 at 17:50
-
3No hard cites, only anecdotal info, so not good for an answer here. Nevertheless, in some areas (including NYC) it's not unusual to hear phrases like *Don't try to snow me; I know better*. – Jeff Zeitlin Feb 17 '23 at 17:56
-
2@JeffZeitlin I have also heard "snow" as a verb for piling on the words in order to mislead or deceive. Random House, Collins and American Heritage dictionaries list "snow" as a transitive verb : 10. Slang. to persuade or deceive by insincere talk or flattery. – ColleenV Feb 17 '23 at 18:03
-
1@ColleenV - Yes, that's also a common usage; the usage I gave is more-or-less a short form of *Don't try to pull a snow job on me; I know better*. – Jeff Zeitlin Feb 17 '23 at 20:08
1 Answers
3
How "fast and loose" you can be with English depends on your audience. Because I'm online, I could easily look up snow job when I saw this question - but if OP had just used it in a conversation down the pub, for example, I'd have had to ask what he meant.
But that's nothing to do with whether snow job was used as a noun or verb (or adjective - That was a snow-job response is perfectly credible). The basic principle in English is that almost all nouns can be used as verbs - if that makes sense.
It doesn't really matter whether the dictionary specifically says your noun is also a verb. Native speakers just speak - they don't keep checking a dictionary to see if they're allowed to say something.
I appreciate that non-native speakers won't necessarily have the confidence to take this position. But they can always search Google Books - here are plenty of written instances of snow-jobbed (sometimes hyphenated, sometimes not; that's just a stylistic choice).
FumbleFingers
- 70,966
- 4
- 97
- 196