different between snag vs grasp

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?snæ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Etymology 1

Of North Germanic origin, ultimately from Old Norse snagi (“clothes peg”), perhaps ultimately from a derivative of Proto-Germanic *snakk-, *sn?gg, variations of *snakan? (“to crawl, creep, wind about”).

Compare Norwegian snag, snage (“protrusion; projecting point”), Icelandic snagi (“peg”). Also see Dutch snoek (“pike”).

Noun

snag (plural snags)

1. A stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch.

   Synonyms: knot, protuberance

   • The coat of arms / Now on a naked snag in triumph borne.

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. (by extension) 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.

   • To see our women's teeth look white,
     And ev'ry saucy ill - bred fellow
     Sneers at a mouth profoundly yellow.
     In China none hold women sweet,
     Except their snags are black as jet# (figuratively) A problem or difficulty with something.

   Synonym: hitch
6. A pulled thread or yarn, as in cloth.
7. One of the secondary branches of an antler.

   Synonyms: tine, point

Derived terms

• snaggy
• snaglike

Translations

Verb

snag (third-person singular simple present snags, present participle snagging, simple past and past participle snagged)

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. (fishing) 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. (slang, transitive) To obtain or pick up.
   • 2017, Off Track Planet's Travel Guide for the Young, Sexy, and Broke

     Tickets are cheaper the younger you are—snag a youth ticket (if you're twenty-five or under) for a 35 percent discount. If both you and your travel partner are twenty-six or older, the Small Group Saver will knock off 15 percent.

5. (Britain, dialect) To cut the snags or branches from, as the stem of a tree; to hew roughly.
   • 1846, Sir Richard Levinge, "Echoes from the Backwoods", in The New Monthly Volume 76

     When felled and snagged, one end of the tree is placed upon a small sledge, and dragged out of the bush by oxen

Translations

Etymology 2

The Australian National Dictionary Centre suggests that snag as slang for "sausage" most likely derives from the earlier British slang for "light meal", although it makes no comment on how it came to be specifically applied to sausages.Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms The word's use in football slang originates as a shortening of "sausage roll", rhyming slang for "goal", to sausage, and hence, by synonymy, snag.

Noun

snag (plural snags)

1. (Britain, dialect, obsolete) A light meal.
2. (Australia, informal, colloquial) A sausage. [From 1937.]

   Synonyms: (UK) banger, (NZ) snarler

   • 2005, Peter Docker, Someone Else?s Country, 2010, ReadHowYouWant, page 116,

     I fire up the barbie and start cooking snags.

   • 2007, Jim Ford, Don't Worry, Be Happy: Beijing to Bombay with a Backpack, page 196,

     ‘You can get the chooks and snags from the fridge if you want,’ he replied.

     I smiled, remembering my bewilderment upon receiving exactly the same command at my very first barbecue back in Sydney a month after I?d first arrived.

   • 2010, Fiona Wallace, Sense and Celebrity, page 25,

     ‘Hungry? We?ve got plenty of roo,’ one of the men said as she walked up. He pointed with his spatula, ‘and pig snags, cow snags, beef and chicken.’

3. (Australian rules football, slang) A goal.
   • 2003, Greg Baum, "Silver anniversary of a goal achieved", The Age

     "It just kept coming down and I just kept putting them through the middle," he said. "I got an opportunity, and I kicked a few snags."

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Australian rhyming slang
• Appendix:Australian rules football slang

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

snag (plural snags)

1. A misnaged, an opponent to Chassidic Judaism (more likely modern, for cultural reasons).

References

Anagrams

• AGNs, ANGs, GANs, GNAs, NSAG, gans, nags, sang

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?n??a?/

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

snag m (genitive singular snaga, nominative plural snaganna)

1. a catch (hesitation in voice), gasp, sob
2. a lull (period of rest)

Declension

Derived terms

• snagcheol (“jazz”)

Etymology 2

Probably related to Scottish Gaelic snag (“sharp knock”), also "wood-pecker."

Noun

snag m (genitive singular snaga, nominative plural snaganna)

1. a treecreeper (bird of the family Certhiidae)

   Synonym: beangán

2. goby (fish)

   Synonym: mac siobháin

Declension

Derived terms

Mutation

Further reading

• "snag" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• Entries containing “snag” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
• Entries containing “snag” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

Related to snaidh (“hew, chip”), from Proto-Celtic *sknad, from Proto-Indo-European *k(?)end- or *k(?)enHd(?)-, see also Sanskrit ????? (kh?dati, “to chew, to bite”) and Persian ??????? (xâyidan, “to chew”).

Noun

snag f (genitive singular snaige, plural snagan)

1. sharp knock (sound)

Derived terms

• snagan-daraich

Mutation

References

English

Etymology

From Middle English graspen, grapsen, craspen (“to grope; feel around”), from Old English gr?psan (“to touch, feel”), from Proto-Germanic *graipis?n?. Cognate with German Low German grapsen (“to grab; grasp”), Saterland Frisian Grapse (“double handful”). Compare also Swedish krafsa (“to scatch; scabble”), Norwegian krafse (“to scramble”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /????sp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??æsp/
• Rhymes: -æsp

Verb

grasp (third-person singular simple present grasps, present participle grasping, simple past and past participle grasped)

1. To grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand.
3. To understand.

   I have never been able to grasp the concept of infinity.

4. To take advantage of something, to seize, to jump at a chance.

Synonyms

• (grip): clasp, grip, hold tight; See also Thesaurus:grasp
• (understand): comprehend, fathom
• (take advantage): jump at the chance, jump on

Derived terms

• begrasp
• foregrasp
• grasp the nettle

Related terms

Translations

Noun

grasp (plural grasps)

1. (sometimes figuratively) Grip.

   • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
3. Understanding.
   • 1859, George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Chapter 13:

     There is for the mind but one grasp of happiness: from that uppermost pinnacle of wisdom, whence we see that this world is well designed.

4. That which is accessible; that which is within one's reach or ability.

Translations

Anagrams

• ARPGs, sprag