snatch-
the verb-stem used in combs.: a. Naut. Denoting devices capable of rapid attachment, or to which a rope can be quickly attached, as snatch-cheek, snatch-cleat, snatch-hook, † snatch-pulley, snatch-sheave (cf. snatch-block).
| 1485 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 50 Snache poleis, ij. 1495 Ibid. 192 Snache poleyes with oon shever of brasse to y⊇ same. 1842 R. Burn Fr. Techn. Dict. 162 Taquet à gueule,..snatch-cleat. 1882 Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 73 A snatch cheek on the after side of the..yard-arm. Ibid. 76 Rove..through a snatch sheave. 1891 Cent. Dict., Snatch⁓cleat, a curved cleat or chock round which a rope may be led. |
b. In objective combs., as
snatch-apple,
† snatch-cly,
snatch-grace,
† snatch-pasty (see
quots.).
| 1687 Miége Gt. Fr. Dict., A Snatch-pasty, un Voleur de Pâtez. 1796 Grose's Dict. Vulgar T., Snatch cly, a thief who snatches women's pockets. 1828 Carr Craven Gloss., Snatch-apple, an apple suspended by a string, with which children amuse themselves by snatching at it with their teeth. 1884 Browning Ferishtah (1885) 65 No scape-grace? Then, rejoice Thou snatch-grace safe in Syria! |
c. = snap- e.
| 1884 E. W. Hamilton Diary 15 Mar. (1972) II. 577 A motion..which..the Opposition supported in the hope of taking the Government by surprise and putting them in a minority by a snatch division. 1889 Spectator 7 Dec., He secured a snatch-vote in favour of a permanent system of arbitration. 1893 Times 21 June 9/4 It is impossible to suppose the snatch-division..has settled the point. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 22 June 5/3 What Ministerialists regard as a snatch reverse in Supply. |
d. Denoting the practice or use of snatching, as
snatch-thief;
snatch-back, the action of taking back; also
attrib.; (see also
quot. 1905);
snatch crop, a crop grown for quick returns without regard to the future productivity of the soil; also
attrib. and
fig.;
snatch squad Mil., a group of soldiers detailed to seize troublemakers in a crowd; also
transf.| 1905 Dialect Notes III. 94 Snatchback, change for the worse in circumstances... ‘That's a snatchback for him.’ 1949 New Statesman 24 Dec. 750/3 The distress caused by the snatch-back is no less tragic than would be suffered by natural parents who were forcibly deprived of their children. 1962 A. Sampson Anat. of Britain xxiii. 377 Hire-purchase..companies..could be ruthless in enforcing ‘snatch-backs’ if payments had lapsed. 1965 E. Gundrey Foot in Door xvii. 123 ‘Snatchback’ machines, that is ones which had to be returned to dealers by people who failed to keep up their H.P. payments. 1979 H. S. Kent In on Act ix. 101 The main objects of the Bill were, first, to make sure that the hire-purchaser knew what he was paying..secondly, to restrict the seller's rights to ‘snatch back’ the goods on default... The most dear to Ellen's heart was the ban on the snatch-back. |
| 1937 H. G. Wells Brynhild v. 58 Fellows like Blatch can reap a harvest..at ten per cent... There are too many authors. Blatch is able to live by snatch crops. 1959 Listener 30 July 179/2 The heart of the soil..had been weakened by the greed of the snatch-crop farmers. 1970 Financial Times 23 Mar. 1/1 About 150 youths moved out of Bogside.., smashing windows..and stoning the Army ‘snatch squad’. 1976 Western Mail (Cardiff) 22 Nov. 1/2 A snatch squad of animal lovers seized 11 beagle pups in a night-time commando-style raid on a top-security breeding centre in West Wales. 1982 Times 1 Sept. 3/1 Snatch squads tried ineffectively to combat roaming gangs of pickpockets. |
| 1887 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 1 May 13/2 Where the bonnet⁓buyer is there is the pickpocket and snatch-thief also. 1892 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 3 Nov. 3/7 A snatch thief arrested. 1903 19th Cent. Mar. 507 The snatch-thief who relies on his swiftness of foot. |