SNARL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Snarl

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/snɑrl/ Listen

noun

Snarl n. A knot or complication of hair, thread, or the like, difficult to disentangle; entanglement; hence, intricate complication; embarrassing difficulty.

Snarl n. The act of snarling; a growl; a surly or peevish expression; an angry contention.

verb

Snarl v. t. (past & past part. snarled; pres. part. snarling) To form raised work upon the outer surface of (thin metal ware) by the repercussion of a snarling iron upon the inner surface.

Snarl v. t.

To entangle; to complicate; to involve in knots; as, to snarl a skein of thread. "Her snarled hair."

To embarrass; to insnare. "(The) question that they would have snarled him with."

Snarl v. i.

To growl, as an angry or surly dog; to gnarl; to utter grumbling sounds. "An angry cur snarls while he feeds."

To speak crossly; to talk in rude, surly terms. "It is malicious and unmanly to snarl at the little lapses of a pen, from which Virgil himself stands not exempted."

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Etymology of 'Snarl'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Snarl" Quotes from Famous Books

... Bevis's hare had her form, and immediately he raced across to her, though not clearly knowing what he was going to do; but as he crossed the fields he saw the sportsman, without any dogs and with an empty gun, leaning over the gate and gazing at the eclipse. With a snarl the fox drove Ulu from her form, and so worried her that she was obliged to run (to escape his teeth) right under the sportsman's legs, and thus to fulfil the saying: "The ...

— Wood Magic - A Fable • Richard Jefferies

... yet each of these lives has some bearing upon that of the heroine, Nora St. John, and notwithstanding these intricacies the plot never becomes confused. It has been too firmly grasped by the author's mind to be a puzzle to the reader's. Its various ramifications are never allowed to get into a "snarl:" the mystery all turns upon a single point which we will not spoil the reader's pleasure by mentioning, and, arrived at the last pages, the various threads of the story unwind themselves easily and naturally like a single coil. The same skill is displayed in the management ...

— Lippincott's Magazine, December 1878 • Various

... is that boy doing?" he exclaimed, with a latent snarl in his tone which was novel to her ear. "He'll keep ...

— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic

... the right word, but it was not a bark, growl, mew, cheep, squawk or snarl. Gulp was as close as Stern could come, a dry and almost painful gulping noise that expressed devotion in some totally foreign way that ...

— Martians Never Die • Lucius Daniel

... baffled lynx recovered himself, and faced the girl with so menacing a snarl that she hesitated to follow up her advantage, but paused, holding the axe in readiness to ...

— The Backwoodsmen • Charles G. D. Roberts

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