snatch
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English snacchen, snecchen, from Old English snæċċan, sneċċan, from Proto-Germanic *snakkijaną, *snakkōną (“to nibble, snort, chatter”); see *snūtaz (“snout”).
Cognate with Dutch snakken (“to sob, pant, long for”), Low German snacken (“to chatter”), German schnacken (“to chat”), Norwegian snakke (“to chat”). Related to snack.
Verb[edit]
snatch (third-person singular simple present snatches, present participle snatching, simple past and past participle snatched)
- (transitive) To grasp and remove quickly.
- He snatched up the phone.
- She snatched the letter out of the secretary's hand.
- 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 2
- "How many times have I told you?" she cried, and seized him and snatched his stick away from him.
- 1730, James Thomson, “Autumn”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, OCLC 642619686:
- Snatch me to heaven.
- (intransitive) To attempt to seize something suddenly.
- to snatch at a rope
- (transitive) To take or seize hastily, abruptly, or without permission or ceremony.
- to snatch a kiss
- 1731-1735, Alexander Pope, Moral Essays
- when half our knowledge we must snatch, not take
- (transitive, informal) To steal.
- Someone has just snatched my purse!
- (transitive, informal, figuratively, by extension) To take (a victory) at the last moment.
- 2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:
- But, with United fans in celebratory mood as it appeared their team might snatch glory, they faced an anxious wait as City equalised in stoppage time.
- (transitive, informal) To do something quickly in the limited time available.
- 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian[1]:
- You might now reason that even a 12-minute walk to the store to buy a can of beans is too great an expenditure of time, and that the fee paid for one-hour delivery is a fair price to snatch those minutes back into your life.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 10, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
- It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.
- He snatched a sandwich before catching the train.
- He snatched a glimpse of her while her mother had her back turned.
Synonyms[edit]
- grab
- See also Thesaurus:steal
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to grasp quickly
to grab something without permissions or by force
to grasp and remove
to steal
|
to snatch a victory
to do quickly
Noun[edit]
snatch (plural snatches)
- A quick grab or catch.
- The leftfielder makes a nice snatch to end the inning.
- 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
- And he […] glared on the cold pistols that hung before him—ready for anything. And he took down one with a snatch and weighed it in his hand, and fell to thinking again; […]
- (weightlifting) A competitive weightlifting event in which a barbell is lifted from the platform to locked arms overhead in a smooth continuous movement.
- A piece of some sound, usually music or conversation.
- I heard a snatch of Mozart as I passed the open window.
- (vulgar slang) The vulva. [from 18th c.][1]
- 1962, Douglas Woolf, Wall to Wall,[2] Grove Press, page 83,
- Claude, is it true what they say about Olovia? Of course she’s getting a little old for us—what about Marilyum, did you try her snatch?
- 1985, Jackie Collins, Lucky,[3] Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 150,
- Roughly Santino ripped the sheet from the bed, exposing all of her. She had blond hair on her snatch, which drove him crazy. He was partial to blondes.
- 2008, Jim Craig, North to Disaster,[4] Bushak Press, →ISBN, page 178,
- “ […] You want me to ask Brandy to let you paint her naked body with all this gooey stuff to make a mold of her snatch?”
- 1962, Douglas Woolf, Wall to Wall,[2] Grove Press, page 83,
- (dated) A brief period of exertion.
- (dated) A catching of the voice.
- (dated) A hasty snack; a bite to eat.
- (dated) A quibble.
Translations[edit]
quick grab or catch
|
competitive weightlifting event
piece of sound
|
vagina
References[edit]
- ^ Lambert, James. (2007). ‘Some Early Evidence for the Sexual Meaning of snatch.’ Comments on Etymology, Oct/Nov: 38–40.
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English intransitive verbs
- English informal terms
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Weightlifting
- English vulgarities
- English slang
- English dated terms