snag

English

Pronunciation

• (Canada, UK) IPA: /ˈsnæɡ/
• Rhymes: -æɡ

Etymology 1

From Old Norse snagi (“clothes peg”).

Noun

snag (plural snags)

1. A stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch; a knot; a protuberance.
2. A tooth projecting beyond the rest; a broken or decayed tooth.
3. A tree, or a branch of a tree, fixed in the bottom of a river or other navigable water, and rising nearly or quite to the surface, by which boats are sometimes pierced and sunk.
4. (figuratively) A problem or difficulty with something.
   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter XII:

     The snag in this business of falling in love, aged relative, is that the parties of the first part so often get mixed up with the wrong parties of the second part, robbed of their cooler judgment by the parties of the second part's glamour.

5. A pulled thread or yarn, as in cloth.
6. One of the secondary branches of an antler.

Synonyms

• (problem or difficulty): hitch

Derived terms

• snaggy
• snaglike

Translations

stump or base of a branch

• Finnish: oksantynkä (fi)
• Persian: سرشاخه (fa) (sarşâxe)

• Russian: коряга (ru) (korjága) f

tooth projecting beyond the rest

tree fixed in the bottom of a river or other navigable water

• Finnish: uppotukki (fi)

• Maori: taitā (mi)
• Russian: топляк (ru) (topljak) m

one of the secondary branches of an antler

pulled thread or yarn

• Finnish: langanpää (fi)

• Japanese: ほつれ (ja) (hotsure)

problem or difficulty

• Finnish: pulma (fi)
• French: pépin (fr) m
• Japanese: 些細なトラブル (ja) (sasai na toraburu)

• Russian: препятствие (ru) (prepjátstvije) n, загвоздка (ru) (zagvózdka) f
• Scottish Gaelic: duilgheadas (gd) m, staing (gd) f

Verb

snag (third-person singular simple present snags, present participle snagging, simple past and past participle snagged)

1. To catch or tear (e.g. fabric) upon a rough surface or projection.

   Be careful not to snag your stockings on that concrete bench!

2. (fishing) To fish by means of dragging a large hook or hooks on a line, intending to impale the body (rather than the mouth) of the target.

   We snagged for spoonbill from the eastern shore of the Mississippi river.

3. (slang) To obtain or pick up (something).

   Ella snagged a bottle of water from the fridge before leaving for her jog.

4. (UK, dialect) To cut the snags or branches from, as the stem of a tree; to hew roughly.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Translations

to catch or tear

• Japanese: ほつれる (ja) (hotsureru), 裂ける (ja) (sakeru), 破ける (ja) (yabukeru)

fishing: to fish by means of dragging a large hook or hooks on a line

• Japanese: さびく (ja) (sabiku), さっかける (ja) (sakkakeru), ひっかける (ja) (hikkakeru)

slang: to pick up

Etymology 2

Noun

snag (plural snags)

1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) A light meal.
2. (Australia, informal, colloquial) A sausage. [From 1941.]
   • 2005, Peter Docker, Someone Else′s Country, 2010, ReadHowYouWant, page 116,

     I fire up the barbie and start cooking snags.

   • 2007, Jim Ford, Don't Worry, Be Happy: Beijing to Bombay with a Backpack, page 196,

     ‘You can get the chooks and snags from the fridge if you want,’ he replied.

     I smiled, remembering my bewilderment upon receiving exactly the same command at my very first barbecue back in Sydney a month after I′d first arrived.

   • 2010, Fiona Wallace, Sense and Celebrity, page 25,

     ‘Hungry? We′ve got plenty of roo,’ one of the men said as she walked up. He pointed with his spatula, ‘and pig snags, cow snags, beef and chicken.’

Synonyms

• (sausage): banger (UK, Australia)

Translations

informal: sausage

• Finnish: skäägä (fi)

Etymology 3

Noun

snag (plural snags)

1. A misnaged, an opponent to Chassidic Judaism (more likely modern, for cultural reasons).

Anagrams

• AGNs
• gans
• nags
• sang

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Scottish Gaelic

Noun

snag f (genitive snaige, plural snagan)

1. sharp knock (sound)

Derived terms

• snagan-daraich