▪ I. † gnare, n. Obs.
Also 5 gnarre.
[Of obscure origin; the coincidence in sense with snare is remarkable, but the n. cannot have originated in a scribal error, as the following vb. is derived from it.]
A snare.
| a 1325 Prose Psalter xxiv. [xxv.] 16 He shal drawe out myn feet of þe gnare. c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 363 Blyndenes in þis point makiþ men to be taken in his [þe fendis] gnaris. 1382 ― 2 Sam. xxii. 6 There wenten before me the gnaris [1388 snaris] of deeth. c 1440 N. Love Bonaventura's Mirror xxvi. lf. 56 (Gibbs MS.) Þat worchyp is one of þe most perylouse gnarre [1530 W. de W. snare] of þe enemy to cacche and bygyle mannes soule. c 1450 tr. De Imitatione iii. lix, Nature..drawiþ many men & holdiþ hem as in a gnare. |
▪ II. † gnare, v. Obs.
Also 6 gnarre.
[f. prec.]
trans. To choke, strangle. Also, to snare, entrap.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 437 Þes two lawis ben granes [printed graues] to þe fend to gnare men in his net. c 1380 ― Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 96 Þes double mannis lawes..gnaren þe Chirche, as tares gnaren corn. 1382 ― Prov. vi. 2 Thou art gnarid [Vulg. illaqueatus] with the woordis of thi mouth. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy v. xxxvi, Erygona..toke a rope..and ther-withall gan her selfe to gnare. 1530 Palsgr. 569/1, I gnarre in a halter or corde, I stoppe ones breathe or snarle one, je estrangle. He pulled the towel so strayte about my necke that he had almoste gnarred me. |