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Snap   /snæp/   Listen
verb
Snap  v. t.  (past & past part. snapped; pres. part. snapping)  
1.
To break at once; to break short, as substances that are brittle. "Breaks the doors open, snaps the locks."
2.
To strike, to hit, or to shut, with a sharp sound.
3.
To bite or seize suddenly, especially with the teeth. "He, by playing too often at the mouth of death, has been snapped by it at last."
4.
To break upon suddenly with sharp, angry words; to treat snappishly; usually with up.
5.
To crack; to cause to make a sharp, cracking noise; as, to snap a whip. "MacMorian snapped his fingers repeatedly."
6.
To project with a snap.
7.
(Cricket) To catch out sharply (a batsman who has just snicked a bowled ball).
To snap back (Football), to roll the ball back with the foot; done only by the center rush, who thus delivers the ball to the quarter back on his own side when both sides are ranged in line.
To snap off.
(a)
To break suddenly.
(b)
To bite off suddenly.



Snap  v. i.  
1.
To break short, or at once; to part asunder suddenly; as, a mast snaps; a needle snaps. "But this weapon will snap short, unfaithful to the hand that employs it."
2.
To give forth, or produce, a sharp, cracking noise; to crack; as, blazing firewood snaps.
3.
To make an effort to bite; to aim to seize with the teeth; to catch eagerly (at anything); often with at; as, a dog snapsat a passenger; a fish snaps at the bait.
4.
To utter sharp, harsh, angry words; often with at; as, to snap at a child.
5.
To miss fire; as, the gun snapped.
6.
Of the eyes, to emit sudden, brief sparkles like those of a snapping fire, as sometimes in anger.



adjective
Snap  adj.  Done, performed, made, executed, carried through, or the like, quickly and without deliberation; as, a snap judgment or decision; a snap political convention. (Colloq.)



noun
Snap  n.  
1.
A sudden breaking or rupture of any substance.
2.
A sudden, eager bite; a sudden seizing, or effort to seize, as with the teeth.
3.
A sudden, sharp motion or blow, as with the finger sprung from the thumb, or the thumb from the finger.
4.
A sharp, abrupt sound, as that made by the crack of a whip; as, the snap of the trigger of a gun.
5.
A greedy fellow.
6.
That which is, or may be, snapped up; something bitten off, seized, or obtained by a single quick movement; hence, a bite, morsel, or fragment; a scrap. "He's a nimble fellow, And alike skilled in every liberal science, As having certain snaps of all."
7.
A sudden severe interval or spell; applied to the weather; as, a cold snap.
8.
A small catch or fastening held or closed by means of a spring, or one which closes with a snapping sound, as the catch of a bracelet, necklace, clasp of a book, etc.
9.
(Zool.) A snap beetle.
10.
A thin, crisp cake, usually small, and flavored with ginger; used chiefly in the plural.
11.
Briskness; vigor; energy; decision. (Colloq.)
12.
Any circumstance out of which money may be made or an advantage gained. (Slang)
13.
Any task, labor, set of circumstances, or the like, that yields satisfactory results or gives pleasure with little trouble or effort, as an easy course of study, a job where work is light, a bargain, etc. (Slang, Chiefly U. S.)
14.
A snap shot with a firearm.
15.
(Photog.) A snapshot.
16.
Something of no value; as, not worth a snap. (Colloq.)
17.
(Football) The action of snapping the ball back, from the center usu. to the quarterback, which commences the play (down), and, if the clock had stopped, restarts the timer clock; a snap back.
Snap back (Football), the act of snapping back the ball.
Snap beetle, or Snap bug (Zool.), any beetle of the family Elateridae, which, when laid on its back, is able to leap to a considerable height by means of a thoracic spring; called also snapping beetle.
Snap flask (Molding), a flask for small work, having its sides separable and held together by latches, so that the flask may be removed from around the sand mold.
Snap judgment, a judgment formed on the instant without deliberation.
Snap lock, a lock shutting with a catch or snap.
Snap riveting, riveting in which the rivets have snapheads formed by a die or swaging tool.
Snap shot, a quick offhand shot, without deliberately taking aim.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Snap" Quotes from Famous Books



... of Your Majesty's excursions into philosophy, in order to bring those august theses into contempt, his argument would never find emphasis or value unless he were to terminate its last phrase by a snap of the fingers and the mention ...
— On Something • H. Belloc

... gasped, "I thought that 'ud hit you. That's what I call a real live piece of work. Here's another—in the old-fashioned style. Not quite so much snap about it. But my fourth low-comedian thinks he can make it go. It's called, 'When Father Threw his Wages at ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 23, 1914 • Various

... greatest, as was expressed by the balance of Critolaiis. 'Tis no wonder; it makes them to its own liking, and cuts them out of the whole cloth; of this I every day see notable examples, and, peradventure, to be desired. But I, who am of a mixed and heavy condition, cannot snap so soon at this one simple object, but that I negligently suffer myself to be carried away with the present pleasures of the, general human law, intellectually sensible, and sensibly intellectual. The Cyrenaic philosophers will have ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne

... meet him. Now comes the perilous moment! Bomelmeek, beware! She is raising her tail, at whose end is a horrible sting to clasp thee as with a pair of arms. And look, see her jaws, white with foam, and larger than the largest tree of the forest, are extended to kiss thy cheek, or scarcely worse to snap off thy head. Brave man! With what undaunted firmness he suffers himself to be taken to her arms—no, not to her arms, but her tail—and how patiently he suffers his cheeks that have felt the breath of sweet lips to be slabbered by a nasty snake! Oh! if he fall a victim to his ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 3 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones

... recovered himself, and fired over his shoulder. Several of the troopers were already on horseback, and it was only a matter of riding him down. He saw this himself, and his futile shot was designed to stop one at least of the horses. However, it went wide. He slipped behind a tree and began snap-shooting at the advancing mounted men. They spread out fanwise, thus coming at him from three sides at once. He moved slightly in order to get a better aim, and in doing so unwittingly exposed himself. One ...
— The Lost Valley • J. M. Walsh


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