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snag

[snag]

noun

a tree or part of a tree held fast in the bottom of a river, lake, etc., and forming an impediment or danger to navigation.

a short, projecting stump, as of a branch broken or cut off.

any sharp or rough projection.

a jagged hole, tear, pull, or run in a fabric, as caused by catching on a sharp projection.

any obstacle or impediment.

EXPAND

a stump of a tooth or a projecting tooth; snaggletooth.

COLLAPSE

verb (used with object)

to run or catch up on a snag.

to damage by so doing.

to obstruct or impede, as a snag does: He snagged all my efforts.

10.

to grab; seize: to snag the last piece of pie.

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Snag is one of our favorite verbs.

So is yaff. Does it mean:

to bark; yelp.

chat, to converse

LEARN MORE FUN, UNUSUAL VERBS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

verb (used without object)

11.

to become entangled with some obstacle or hindrance.

12.

to become tangled: This line snags every time I cast.

13.

(of a boat) to strike a snag.

14.

to form a snag.

Origin:
1570–80; < Old Norse snagi point, projection

Related forms

snag·like, adjective

un·snagged, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To snag

Example Sentences

India's education ministry appears to have hit a snag in its anticorruption campaign.

The snag with all these ideas is that the data are not widely and quickly available.

It is unlawful to intentionally snag or attempt to snag any fish in fresh water.

EXPAND

India's education ministry appears to have hit a snag in its anticorruption campaign.

The snag with all these ideas is that the data are not widely and quickly available.

It is unlawful to intentionally snag or attempt to snag any fish in fresh water.

They might snag on the overlying plate as the crust slides into the mantle, creating occasional bursts of tremors.

Freeing a beached vessel usually involved the laborious unloading of cargo until the boat rode high enough to clear the snag.

Wiis are devilishly hard to come by these days, so any chance to snag one is welcome, even if it's through a goofy contest.

Norick saw another opportunity to snag the university's top candidate.

The snag is that the number of losers-including those facing lower real wages-may be bigger than he thinks.

It can snag prey located more than one and a half body lengths away.

At the tip, where normal penguins have a slight hook to snag prey, the beak in this penguin is straight and pointed.

The belly scales are oriented so that they snag on irregularities.

If these fail to land on an ant, the spores sprout stalks that can snag ants walking over them.

They may have run into a snag with funding, had a search committee member fall ill, or any one of a number of things.

Another technical snag looks likely to be the environmental impact of producing oil from tar sands.

Villagers once used slingshots to snag parents from the trees and catch the young tamarins to be sold.

Thus, if spammers snag one of your alias addresses, you can terminate it on the fly.

Wear nylon gloves when putting them on and you'll rarely snag or run your hose.

The snag is that there is no guarantee that it will work.

While reserve biologists tag the crocs, you'll run reconnaissance to help locate and snag the beasts.

Sony hopes its drastic departure in design will differentiate its two tablets enough for you to snag them up.

They are pressuring for an early hire to snag someone good.

The snag is that virtuous circles can easily turn vicious.

And both kinds of photoreceptors snag light with molecules known as opsins.

The portraits are limited edition items, so if you're interested, you should probably try and snag yours sooner rather than later.

The snag is that microwaves can only penetrate the ground in dry areas, because water absorbs them.

The male stands guard on a snag curving over the pond.

The snag is that forecasts for growth and inflation consistently proved too high.

Kids sit on ladders topped with makeshift highchairs, the better for their little hands to snag trinkets.

The snag is that in these countries output growth has settled around a much lower average rate.

Snakes use their overlapping scales to snag uneven ground and achieve their trademark slither, a new study says.

The snag is that the company is still bleeding red ink.

Likewise, predators such as seagulls may swoop in to snag an unprotected egg or chick.

The snag is that these trades could turn out far less profitable than expected.

The prehistoric predator used the sharp teeth protruding from the roof of its mouth to snag large prey, scientists say.

The snag is that central banks will eventually have to mop up the overhang of liquidity and bond yields will then rise.

Here are five ways to snag a cruise deal for summer.

One snag is that the insurgency is decentralised and lacks leaders who are heeded by large numbers of fighters.

The snag is that money-supply growth would explode without sterilisation, which is now close to its limit.

The snag is that today's technology and financial wizardry would probably make it impossible to enforce such a tax.

But now a bureaucratic snag is threatening the scheme.

The snag with this is that people engrossed in video chatting may well resent being bombarded with ads.

Gaskins, on my panel, usually spotted the snag and gently set the student straight.

O'Malley, two undergraduates, have hit a snag in a fluid-dynamics experiment they're.

The only snag is that the paint was red, so his house is now red, which he hates.

Grab the eggs from your chickens, scour the garden for fresh veggies snag local.

Soon, motorists will be able to swoop in and snag choice parking spaces using cell phones or handheld.

The snag about beets is that they tend to be sold in bunches that contain both large and small ones.

I'd say that if you can snag one of these, it would be a good deal.

Those little hooks can snag bacterial poisons and then stick them to an immune system protein.

There are electricity outlets for the window seat in the regular train so you have to snag one.

The snag is that labour productivity is an incomplete gauge of efficiency.

But even amateurs can snag the best performance-tracking wrist-top.

Wide overlapping scales on their bellies snag rough surfaces and help the reptiles propel themselves.

We think the only reason people do productive things is to snag a carrot or avoid a stick.

Plus, her husband wasn't able to snag a position at the same university.

The sea stars feed by using their intricate webs of branching arms to snag zooplankton drifting by in the current.

Those wire loops are even big enough that the cable itself won't snag as it is pulled through.

One female killer whale quickly beaches herself to snag a vulnerable seal pup.

The snag is that multi-factor productivity is a lot harder to measure.

If that fails, they'll return here during the dry season and see if they can't snag these cats near a watering hole.

You'll also be able to snag bonus features, outtakes, and commentaries.

Get the scoop on how to snag hard-to-get tickets after the jump.

The snag is that his preferred method-allowing them to retain more of their benefits after they find work-will be expensive.

One snag is that the purchases would tend to drive up the market.

The second snag is a lack of uniform technical standards.

The snag is that a weaker dollar will hurt the rest of the world.

The snag is that the current rise in oil prices looks much more permanent than previous spikes.

But the snag may be more political than bureaucratic.

The snag is that economists disagree on whether and how much this will really save the government or the health system.

The snag is that richer people own more shares, so the increased return on capital tends to reinforce income inequality.

Big companies do not want a cross-border deal, especially a large one, to unravel because of an unanticipated legal snag.

Your correspondent managed to snag a seat in the centre of the ceremony's orchestra section, in the middle of the action.

The snag is that, as yet, there are no details about how exactly the money will be spent.

The snag is that bond sales will tend to push up interest rates and so attract yet more capital inflows.

One snag is that, so far, web services have turned out to be much harder to deliver than their champions had hoped.

The snag is that poor countries are likely to continue burning cheap domestic reserves of coal for decades.

The snag is that the two methods are often incompatible and so cannot easily be combined.

Another snag is the army's fixation with self-protection.

They are slipping in the league tables and are making no efforts to snag talent from top level firms.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

snag (snæɡ)

—n
1.	a difficulty or disadvantage: the snag is that I have nothing suitable to wear
2.	a sharp protuberance, such as a tree stump
3.	a small loop or hole in a fabric caused by a sharp object
4.	engineering a projection that brings to a stop a sliding or rotating component
5.	chiefly (US), (Canadian) a tree stump in a riverbed that is dangerous to navigation
6.	(US), (Canadian) a standing dead tree, esp one used as a perch by an eagle
7.	slang (Austral) (plural) sausages

—vb , snags, snagging, snagged
8.	(tr) to hinder or impede
9.	(tr) to tear or catch (fabric)
10.	(intr) to develop a snag
11.	chiefly (US), (Canadian) (intr) (of a boat) to strike or be damaged by a snag
12.	chiefly (US), (Canadian) (tr) to clear (a stretch of water) of snags
13.	(US) (tr) to seize (an opportunity, benefit, etc)

[C16: of Scandinavian origin; compare Old Norse snaghyrndr sharp-pointed, Norwegian snage spike, Icelandic snagi peg]

'snaglike

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

snag

1577, "stump of a tree, branch," of Scand. origin, cf. O.N. snagi "clothes peg," snaga "a kind of ax." The meaning "sharp or jagged projection" is first recorded 1586; that of "obstacle, impediment" is 1829. The verb meaning "to be caught on an impediment" is attested from 1807, from the noun. Originally

EXPAND

Amer.Eng., often of steamboats caught on branches and stumps lodged in riverbeds. The meaning "to catch, steal, pick up" is Amer.Eng. colloquial, attested from 1895. Snaggle-toothed "having crooked, projecting teeth" (1585) is from the same root.

COLLAPSE

Slang Dictionary

snag definition

n.
a difficulty. : There's a little snag in our plan.
n.
an ugly (young) woman. : Who's the snag your brother is running around with?
n.
and SNAG. a Sensitive New-Age Guy. : There were only snags and bimbos at the rally, so I left.
tv.
to procure, grab, or steal something. : See if you can snag a couple of good seats while I get the popcorn.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

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Computing Dictionary