Pronunciations (2)
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/snæt͡ʃ/
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snætʃ
Verb
To grasp and remove quickly.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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He snatched up the phone.
She snatched the letter out of the secretary's hand.
More examples (2)
Snatch me to heaven.
"How many times have I told you?" she cried, and seized him and snatched his stick away from him.
To attempt to seize something suddenly.
Usage- Intransitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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to snatch at a rope
To take or seize hastily, abruptly, or without permission or ceremony.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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to snatch a kiss
1731-1735, Alexander Pope, Moral Essays when half our knowledge we must snatch, not take
To steal.
Usage- Informal
- Transitive
- Examples
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Someone has just snatched my purse!
More examples (1)
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.
To take (a victory) at the last moment.
Usage- broadly
- Figurative
- Informal
- Transitive
- Examples
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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.
To do something quickly in the limited time available.
Usage- Informal
- Transitive
- Examples
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He snatched a sandwich before catching the train.
He snatched a glimpse of her while her mother had her back turned.
More examples (4)
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.
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.
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.
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."
Noun
A quick grab or catch.
- Examples
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The leftfielder makes a nice snatch to end the inning.
More examples (1)
And he […] glared on the cold pistols that hung before him—ready for anything. And he took down one with a snatch and weighed it in his hand, and fell to thinking again; […]
A short period.
- Examples
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At the end we preferred to travel all night, Sleeping in snatches,
Frank looked at the screens dully. He had slept about three hours, in snatches.
A competitive weightlifting event in which a barbell is lifted from the platform to locked arms overhead in a smooth continuous movement.
A piece of some sound, usually music or conversation.
- Examples
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I heard a snatch of Mozart as I passed the open window.
More examples (1)
But, purgatory as the place would appear, the stranger advances into it; and, like Orpheus in his gay descent to Tartarus, lightly hums to himself an opera snatch.
The vulva.
Usage- Slang
- Vulgar
- Examples
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Claude, is it true what they say about Olovia? Of course she’s getting a little old for us—what about Marilyum, did you try her snatch?
Roughly Santino ripped the sheet from the bed, exposing all of her. She had blond hair on her snatch, which drove him crazy. He was partial to blondes.
More examples (2)
Dan: Hey, Ani, I found my keys! They were in my pocket. Ani: That's great, Dan! Of course, I've never lost mine. Dan: Really? Where do you keep yours? Ani: In my snatch!
“[…]You want me to ask Brandy to let you paint her naked body with all this gooey stuff to make a mold of her snatch?”
Rapid, uncommanded jerking or oscillation of the ailerons of some aircraft at high Mach numbers, resulting from shock wave formation at transonic speeds.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
If, after the pilot notices the overspeed, he deploys the spoilers, or if aileron "snatch" rolls the airplane to an excessive bank angle, it may become impossible to recover.
A brief period of exertion.
Usage- Dated
A catching of the voice.
Usage- Dated
A hasty snack; a bite to eat.
Usage- Dated
A quibble.
Usage- Dated
Noun
a small fragment
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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overheard snatches of their conversation
obscene terms for female genitals
(law) the unlawful act of capturing and carrying away a person against their will and holding them in false imprisonment
- Synonyms
a weightlift in which the barbell is lifted overhead in one rapid motion
- Broader terms
the act of catching an object with the hands
- Examples
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Mays made the catch with his back to the plate
he made a grab for the ball before it landed
More examples (2)
Martin's snatch at the bridle failed and the horse raced away
the infielder's snap and throw was a single motion
Verb
to grasp hastily or eagerly
- Broader terms
- Examples
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Before I could stop him the dog snatched the ham bone
to make grasping motions
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the cat snatched at the butterflies
take away to an undisclosed location against their will and usually in order to extract a ransom
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The industrialist's son was kidnapped