snag
/snæɡ/ noun, verb
Forms snags snagging snagged
- noun A stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch.
- noun A dead tree that remains standing.
- noun A tree, or a branch of a tree, fixed in the bottom of a river or other navigable water, and rising nearly or quite to the surface, by which boats are sometimes pierced and sunk.
- noun (by extension) Any sharp protuberant part of an object, which may catch, scratch, or tear other objects brought into contact with it.
- noun A tooth projecting beyond the others; a broken or decayed tooth.
- noun (figuratively) A problem or difficulty with something. “we hit a snag”
- noun A pulled thread or yarn, as in cloth; a tear.
- noun One of the secondary branches of an antler.
- verb (transitive) To catch or tear (e.g. fabric) upon a rough surface or projection. “Be careful not to snag your stockings on that concrete bench!”
- verb (transitive, nautical) To damage or sink (a vessel) by collision; said of a tree or branch fixed to the bottom of a navigable body of water and partially submerged or rising to just beneath the surface. “The steamboat was snagged on the Mississippi River in 1862.”
- verb (fishing, transitive) To fish by means of dragging a large hook or hooks on a line, intending to impale the body (rather than the mouth) of the target. “We snagged for spoonbill from the eastern shore of the Mississippi River.”
- verb (slang, transitive) To obtain or pick up, especially in a quick or surreptitious way. “Ella snagged a bottle of water from the fridge before leaving for her jog.”
- verb (UK, dialect) To cut the snags or branches from, as the stem of a tree; to hew roughly.
- verb (slang, Native American, intransitive) To have noncommittal sexual relations.
- noun (UK, dialect, obsolete) A light meal.
- noun (Australia, informal, colloquial) A sausage.
- noun (Australian rules football, slang) A goal.
- noun A misnaged, an opponent to Chassidic Judaism (more likely modern, for cultural reasons).
Synonyms
knot protuberance snaggletooth hitch tine point banger snarler rip rent split tear hang-up rub
Etymology
From earlier snag (“stump or branch of a tree”), from Middle English *snagge, *snage, from Old Norse snagi (“clothes peg”) (compare Old Norse snag-hyrndr (“snag-horned, having jagged corners”)), perhaps related to *sneganą, *snakaną (“to crawl, creep, wind about”) if the original meaning of the root *sneg- was more like “pointy object, stinging creature”. Note also *snakkōną (“to snap at, smack the lips; to blow”) (German schnacken (“to chat”)) and English sneck, snatch.
Compare Norwegian snag, snage (“protrusion; projecting point”), Icelandic snagi (“peg”). Also see the Dutch-origin fish names snoek and snook.
The Australian National Dictionary Centre suggests that snag as slang for "sausage" most likely derives from the earlier British slang for "light meal", although it makes no comment on how it came to be specifically applied to sausages.Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms The word's use in football slang originates as a shortening of "sausage roll", rhyming slang for "goal", to sausage, and hence, by synonymy, snag.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch; a knot; a protuberance.
- noun A tooth projecting beyond the rest; contemptuously, a broken or decayed tooth. Prior.
- verb To cut the snags or branches from, as the stem of a tree; to hew roughly. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.
- verb To injure or destroy, as a steamboat or other vessel, by a snag, or projecting part of a sunken tree. [U. S.]
Etymology [Prov. E., n., a lump on a tree where a branch has been cut off; v., to cut off the twigs and small branches from a tree, of Celtic origin; cf. Gael. snaigh, snaidh, to cut down, to prune, to sharpen, p. p. snaighte, snaidhte, cut off, lopped, Ir. snaigh a hewing, cutting.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “snag”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details