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snag

Pronunciation: /snæɡ/

The English word “snag” has 18 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch.
  2. A dead tree that remains standing.
  3. 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.
  4. Any sharp protuberant part of an object, which may catch, scratch, or tear other objects brought into contact with it.
  5. A tooth projecting beyond the others; a broken or decayed tooth.
  6. A problem or difficulty with something.
  7. A pulled thread or yarn, as in cloth; a tear.
  8. One of the secondary branches of an antler.
  9. A light meal.
  10. A sausage.
  11. A goal.
  12. A misnaged, an opponent to Chassidic Judaism (more likely modern, for cultural reasons).

verb

  1. To catch or tear (e.g. fabric) upon a rough surface or projection.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. To obtain or pick up, especially in a quick or surreptitious way.
  5. To cut the snags or branches from, as the stem of a tree; to hew roughly.
  6. To have noncommittal sexual relations.

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.