snatch
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /snæt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ætʃ
Forms: form: snatches
form: snatching
form: snatched
form: snatched
Etymology: From Middle English snacchen, snecchen, from Old English *snæċċan, *sneċċan or from Middle Dutch snacken, from Proto-West Germanic *snakkijan, from Proto-Germanic *snakkijaną, *snakkōną (“to nibble, snort, chatter”); see *snūtaz (“snout”).
Cognate with Dutch snakken (“to sob, pant, long for”), Low German snacken (“to chatter”), German schnacken (“to chat”), Danish snakke (“to chat”) and Norwegian snakke (“to chat”). Related to snack.
Senses: examples: text: He snatched up the phone.
text: She snatched the letter out of the secretary's hand.
text: Snatch me to heaven.
ref: a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Autumn”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC:
text: "How many times have I told you?" she cried, and seized him and snatched his stick away from him.
ref: 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:
glosses: To grasp and remove quickly.
examples: text: to snatch at a rope
synonyms: grab
glosses: To attempt to seize something suddenly.
examples: text: to snatch a kiss
text: 1731-1735, Alexander Pope, Moral Essays
when half our knowledge we must snatch, not take
glosses: To take or seize hastily, abruptly, or without permission or ceremony.
examples: text: Someone has just snatched my purse!
text: Laura snatches coins from inside a truck to make a telephone call, scrounges shoes and clothes for them at a municipal beach, schemes to get a room key so she and Howie can sleep overnight in the Starlight Motel, steals a Jeepster from a deputy sheriff who's trying to arrest them.
ref: 1987 November 8, Ron Hansen, “CHILDREN'S BOOKS; DISCOVERING THE OPPOSITE SEX”, in The New York Times:
synonyms: word: steal
word: abduct
word: abstract
word: appropriate
word: bag
word: bandit
word: bash and grab
word: bone
word: boost
word: burgle
word: burglarize
word: borrow
word: cheat
word: chore
word: commandeer
word: confiscate
word: convert
word: cop
word: cozen
word: crib
word: embezzle
word: filch
word: fleece
word: flog
word: gaffle
word: gilravage
word: half-inch
word: heave
word: heist
word: jack
word: kidnap
word: knock off
word: kipe
word: kyper
word: liberate
word: lift
word: loot
word: make off with
word: mill
word: misappropriate
word: mooch
word: moonlight requisition
word: nick
word: nip
word: own
word: peculate
word: pickpocket
word: pilfer
word: pinch
word: pillage
word: pirate
word: plunder
word: poach
word: pocket
word: prig
word: purloin
word: raid
word: relieve
word: rape
word: ransack
word: reave
word: rip
word: rip off
word: rob
word: run off with
word: snag
word: snatch
word: sniggle
word: snitch
word: swindle
word: swipe
word: thieve
word: walk off with
glosses: To steal.
examples: text: But, with United fans in celebratory mood as it appeared their team might snatch glory, they faced an anxious wait as City equalised in stoppage time.
ref: 2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To take (a victory) at the last moment.
examples: text: He snatched a sandwich before catching the train.
text: He snatched a glimpse of her while her mother had her back turned.
text: It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: No department of the Southern Railway escaped some share of the work involved, and the outdoor traffic and locomotive staffs in particular were engaged literally night and day, snatching a few hours' sleep as opportunity offered, until the task was completed.
ref: 1940 July, “Notes and News: A Magnificent Transport Achievement”, in Railway Magazine, page 419:
text: You might now reason that even a 12-minute walk to the store to buy a can of beans is too great an expenditure of time, and that the fee paid for one-hour delivery is a fair price to snatch those minutes back into your life.
ref: 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian:
text: In 1914, the Hendon and Finchley Times published a piece titled 'People who have no Christmas'. An engine-driver's comment was this: "For many years now I have never enjoyed a real Christmas. My engine has claimed me on this day, and my only regret is that I am not attached to a slow goods train, so that I could snatch time to eat some plum-pudding."
ref: 2022 December 14, David Turner, “The Edwardian Christmas getaway...”, in RAIL, number 972, page 35:
glosses: To do something quickly in the limited time available.
Derived terms: baby snatching
cap snatching
chain-snatch
cradle-snatch
have one's wig snatched
purse snatcher
snatch and grab
snatch and run
snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory
snatcher
snatch someone's edges
snatch the pebble
snatch victory from the jaws of defeat
unsnatch
upsnatch