different between snack vs snark

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /snæk/
• Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch snacken (“to snack”).

Noun

snack (plural snacks)

1. A light meal.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:meal

2. An item of food eaten between meals.
3. (slang) A very sexy and attractive person.
   • 2008, Scott Sherman, First You Fall: A Kevin Connor Mystery, Alyson Publications:

     Up close, he was a total snack. “That was pretty slick.” “Well.” He cocked his head, “I'm a pretty slick guy.” “I'm Kevin,” I said. “Romeo,” he put out his hand. “You're kidding.”

   • 2019, Loy A. Webb, The Light, Concord Theatricals (?ISBN), page 22:

     You were looking like a snack. I was looking like a snack. We were finally going to do what two snacks do... I immediately went into my routine. Covers on. Lights off. But you Mr. Tate...you softly grabbed my hand, kissed it, and turned the lights back on.

   • 2020, Gena Showalter, Prince of Stone, HQN Books (?ISBN):

     Her confusion amped up. But so did her attraction. He was a total snack.

Alternative forms

• (attractive person): snacc

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• munchies
• fast food
• takeaway

Verb

snack (third-person singular simple present snacks, present participle snacking, simple past and past participle snacked)

1. To eat a light meal.
2. To eat between meals.

Derived terms

• snack down

Translations

Etymology 2

See snatch (transitive verb). Ultimately of the same origin as the word under Etymology 1, but perhaps through a different source.

Noun

snack (plural snacks)

1. (obsolete) A share; a part or portion.

Verb

snack (third-person singular simple present snacks, present participle snacking, simple past and past participle snacked)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To snatch.
2. (obsolete, transitive) To bite.
3. (obsolete, transitive) To share.

Anagrams

• nacks

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English snack, from Middle Dutch snacken (from which snakken).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sn?k/

Noun

snack m (plural snacks, diminutive snackje n)

1. snack

Derived terms

• snackbar

Verb

snack

1. first-person singular present indicative of snacken
2. imperative of snacken

French

Etymology

From English snack, from Middle Dutch snacken.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /snak/

Noun

snack m (plural snacks)

1. snack bar

Synonyms

• snack-bar

Further reading

• “snack” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?snak/, [?znak]

• IPA^(key): /es?nak/, [ez?nak]

Noun

snack m (plural snacks)

1. snack

Swedish

Etymology

Nominalization of snacka (“to chat, to talk”).

Pronunciation

Noun

snack n (uncountable)

1. (colloquial) talk, speech

Declension

Related terms

• snacka

Derived terms

• snackis
• skitsnack
• snicksnack

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: snärk, IPA^(key): /sn??(?)k/
• Rhymes: -??(r)k

Etymology 1

Noun sense “snide remark” as back-formation from snarky (1906), from obsolete snark (“to snore, snort”, verb) (1866), from Middle English snarken (“to snore”). Compare Low German snarken, North Frisian snarke, Swedish snarka, and English snort, and snore.

Noun

snark (uncountable)

1. Snide remarks or attitude.

   Synonyms: sarcasm, snideness

   • 2010, David Denby, Snark, Pan Macmillan (?ISBN), page 4:

     Snark will get you any way it can, fore and aft, and to hell with consistency. In a media society, snark is an easy way of seeming smart. […] Snark doesn't create a new image, a new idea. It's parasitic, referential, insinuating.

Related terms

• snarkiness
• snarky

Verb

snark (third-person singular simple present snarks, present participle snarking, simple past and past participle snarked)

1. To express oneself in a snarky fashion.
2. (obsolete) To snort.

Derived terms

• snarker

Etymology 2

From Snark, coined by Lewis Carroll as a nonce word in The Hunting of the Snark (1874), about the quest for an elusive creature. In sense of “a type of mathematical graph”, named as such in 1976 by Martin Gardner for their elusiveness.

Noun

snark (plural snarks)

1. (mathematics) A graph in which every node has three branches, and the edges cannot be coloured in fewer than four colours without two edges of the same colour meeting at a point.
2. (physics) A fluke or unrepeatable result or detection in an experiment.

Further reading

• snark on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Snark (Lewis Carroll) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “snark”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• snark at OneLook Dictionary Search

References

Anagrams

• ARNKs, Karns, Kršan, K???a, karns, knars, krans, narks, ranks, skarn

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stnar?k/
• Rhymes: -ar?k

Noun

snark n (genitive singular snarks, no plural)

1. crackle (of a fire)

Declension

Related terms

• snarka (“to crackle”)

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From snórk. Cognate with Smalandian snarke m, Helsingian snárse, snarkse m, snarka f, Norwegian snerkje m.

Noun

snark m (nominative & accusative definite singular snarken)

1. Skin, wrinkled skin-film which forms on porridge and gruel.
2. Cream.

Alternative forms

• sn?rk