What does "snap" mean?
Snap: To strike, to hit, or to shut, with a sharp sound.
Additional senses
- 2.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. South.
- 3.To break upon suddenly with sharp, angry words; to treat snappishly; -- usually with up. Granville.
- 4.To crack; to cause to make a sharp, cracking noise; as, to snap a whip. MacMorian snapped his fingers repeatedly. Sir W. Scott.
- 5.To project with a snap. 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.
- 6.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. Burke.
- 7.To give forth, or produce, a sharp, cracking noise; to crack; as, blazing firewood snaps.
- 8.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.
- 9.To utter sharp, harsh, angry words; -- often with at; as, to snap at a child.
- 10.To miss fire; as, the gun snapped.
- 11.A sudden breaking or rupture of any substance.
- 12.A sudden, eager bite; a sudden seizing, or effort to seize, as with the teeth.
- 13.A sudden, sharp motion or blow, as with the finger sprung from the thumb, or the thumb from the finger.
- 14.A sharp, abrupt sound, as that made by the crack of a whip; as, the snap of the trigger of a gun.
- 15.A greedy fellow. L'Estrange.
- 16.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. B. Jonson.
- 17.A sudden severe interval or spell; -- applied to the weather; as, a cold snap. Lowell.
- 18.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.
- 19.(Zoöl.) A snap beetle.
- 20.A thin, crisp cake, usually small, and flavored with ginger; -- used chiefly in the plural.
- 21.Briskness; vigor; energy; decision. [Colloq.]
- 22.Any circumstance out of which money may be made or an advantage gained. [Slang] Snap back (Football), the act of snapping back the ball. -- Snap beetle, or Snap bug (Zoöl.), any beetle of the family Elateridæ, 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.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00