snaffle

English

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snaffle

Etymology

Apparently from Dutch snavel, from Middle Dutch snavel, snabel (“snout”), diminutive of Middle Dutch snabbe, snebbe (“bird's bill, neb”). Akin to Old Frisian snavel (“mouth”), Middle Low German snabbe (“neb, beak”), Old English nebb (“beak, bill, nose, face”). More at neb.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈsnæfəl/
Audio (Southern England): (file)

Rhymes: -æfəl

Noun

snaffle (plural snaffles)

A broad-mouthed, loose-ringed bit (metal in a horse's mouth). It brings pressure to bear on the tongue and the corners of the mouth, and is often used as a training bit.
- [1877], Anna Sewell, “A London Cab Horse”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part III, page 158:
  Captain went out in the cab all the morning. Harry came in after school to feed me and give me water. In the afternoon I was put into the cab. Jerry took as much pains to see if the collar and bridle fitted comfortably, as if he had been John Manly over again. When the crupper was let out a hole or two, it all fitted well. There was no bearing rein—no curb—nothing but a plain ring snaffle. What a blessing that was!
- 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “At the Pit's Mouth”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 54:
  “I shall have to take the mare to-morrow,” said the Tertium Quid, “and she will stand nothing heavier than a snaffle.”
- 1912, Belle Beach, Riding and Driving for Women‎^[1], New York: Charles Scribner's Sons:
  For many horses the best bit to use in the field is a plain snaffle, with very large rings, so that the bit cannot be pulled through the horse’s mouth. The bridle should have a cavesson, instead of the usual noseband.
(figuratively) Decorative wear that looks like a snaffle.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
  Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. […] A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.

Synonyms

bradoon

Verb

snaffle (third-person singular simple present snaffles, present participle snaffling, simple past and past participle snaffled)

(transitive) To put a snaffle on, or control with a snaffle.
(transitive, figurative, by extension) To quell or suppress.
- 1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:
  Julian Joolby, when will you learn to snaffle your violent emotion?
(transitive) To clutch by the bridle.
(transitive, informal) To grab or seize; to snap up.
- 2026 April 18, John Thornhill, “Lunch with the FT: Dario Amodei”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3:
  “That was my inspiration back in 2005,” he says, snaffling his third roll.
(transitive, informal) To purloin, or obtain by devious means.
- 2014, Geoffrey Bennett, The Battles of Coronel and the Falklands, 1914:
  […] the Master at Arms, the senior member of the lower deck and chief policeman, was found to be drunk; he must have snaffled some of the crew's rum ration always kept closely guarded in a special locker […]
(UK, Norfolk, intransitive, archaic) To talk foolishly.
- 1855, Notes and Queries, volume 11, page 391:
  In Norfolk, "jaffle" is used in the sense of idle discourse, of an indecent or malicious character; and a prating busybody is said to be "always a snaffling and jafflin about what don't concern him."

Derived terms

References

(talk foolishly): John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary‎^[2]