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Added 9 October 2026

snap

/snæp/ noun

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about snap at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

The act of catching an object with the hands.
Mays made the catch with his back to the plate
A spell of cold weather.
a cold snap in the middle of May
Tender green beans without strings that easily snap into sections.

verb

Utter in an angry, sharp, or abrupt tone.
The sales clerk snapped a reply at the angry customer
Separate or cause to separate abruptly.
The rope snapped
Break suddenly and abruptly, as under tension.
The pipe snapped

Origin

From Dutch snappen (“to bite; seize”) or Low German snappen (“to bite; seize”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *snappōn, from Proto-Germanic *snappōną (“to snap; snatch; chatter”), intensive form of *snapāną (”to snap; grab”, whence Old Norse snapa (“to get; scrounge”)), from Proto-Indo-European *snop-; compare Lithuanian snãpas (“beak, bill”). (One alternative hypothesis links the Germanic words to *snu-, an expressive root deriving words meaning “nose”, “snout”, “sniff” etc., but this is phonetically unsound.) In any case influenced by onomatopoeia; note expressions such as snip-snap, containing the formally unrelated snip.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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