different between squeeze vs snag

English

Etymology

From earlier squize, squise (whence also dialectal English squizzen and squeege), first attested around 1600, probably an alteration of quease (which is attested since 1550), from Middle English queisen (“to squeeze”), from Old English cw?san, cw?san (“to crush, squeeze”), of unknown origin, perhaps imitative (compare Swedish qväsa, kväsa (“to squeeze, bruise, crush; quell”), Dutch kwetsen (“to injure, hurt”), German quetschen (“to squeeze”)). Compare also French esquicher from Old Occitan esquichar (“to press, squeeze”). The slang expression "to put the squeeze on (someone or something)", meaning "to exert influence", is from 1711. The baseball term "squeeze play" is first recorded 1905. "Main squeeze" ("most important person") is attested from 1896, the specific meaning "one's sweetheart, lover" is attested by 1980.

The nonstandard strong forms squoze and squozen, attested dialectally since at least the mid-19th century, are by analogy with freeze.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skwi?z/
• Rhymes: -i?z

Verb

squeeze (third-person singular simple present squeezes, present participle squeezing, simple past squeezed or (nonstandard) squoze, past participle squeezed or (nonstandard) squozen)

1. (transitive) To apply pressure to from two or more sides at once.

   I squeezed the ball between my hands.

   Please don't squeeze the toothpaste tube in the middle.

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1:

     "Over there—by the rock," Steele muttered, with his brush between his teeth, squeezing out raw sienna, and keeping his eyes fixed on Betty Flanders's back.

2. (transitive) To embrace closely; to give a tight hug to.
3. (transitive, intransitive) To fit into a tight place.

   I managed to squeeze the car into that parking space.

   Can you squeeze through that gap?

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:

     Could he not squeeze under the seat of a carriage? He had seen this method adopted by schoolboys, when the journey- money provided by thoughtful parents had been diverted to other and better ends.

4. (transitive) To remove something with difficulty, or apparent difficulty.

   He squeezed some money out of his wallet.

5. (transitive) To put in a difficult position by presenting two or more choices.

   I'm being squeezed between my job and my volunteer work.

   • 2013 May 23, Sarah Lyall, "British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party," New York Times (retrieved 29 May 2013):

     At a time when Mr. Cameron is being squeezed from both sides — from the right by members of his own party and by the anti-immigrant, anti-Europe U.K. Independence Party, and from the left by his Liberal Democrat coalition partners — the move seemed uncharacteristically clunky.

6. (transitive, figuratively) To oppress with hardships, burdens, or taxes; to harass.
7. (transitive, baseball) To attempt to score a runner from third by bunting.

   Jones squeezed in Smith with a perfect bunt.

Synonyms

• (to apply pressure to from two or more sides at once): compress, condense; see also Thesaurus:compress

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

squeeze (plural squeezes)

1. A close or tight fit.
2. (figuratively) A difficult position.

3. A hug or other affectionate grasp.

4. (slang) A romantic partner.
   • 1988, James Ellroy, Dudley Smith Trio: The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential, White Jazz, Random House (?ISBN), page 459:

     He spent nights cruising queer bars near the pad, saw Wiltsie at the dives, but always in the company of his squeeze, a guy he called 'Duane.'

   • 2012, J. Lamar, Tip Tap Toe, Xlibris Corporation (?ISBN), page 141:

     His young squeeze had just backed out and had not seen the assault on her “ sugar daddy” when it happened!

   • 2014, N. Lombardi Jr., Journey Towards a Falling Sun, John Hunt Publishing (?ISBN)

     But even considering that, he might have been a bit more restrained if he hadn't run into his former sexy squeeze, Penny Atieno.

5. (slang) An illicit alcoholic drink made by squeezing Sterno through cheesecloth, etc., and mixing the result with fruit juice.
6. (baseball) The act of bunting in an attempt to score a runner from third.

7. (card games) A play that forces an opponent to discard a card that gives up one or more tricks.
8. (caving) A traversal of a narrow passage.
9. A moulding, cast or other impression of an object, chiefly a design, inscription etc., especially by pressing wet paper onto the surface and peeling off when dry.
   • 1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson 1986, p. 65:

     Nollekens, finding his wife always benefited by these visits, never refused White a squeeze of a patera, or any thing that would answer his purpose; […] White […] had turned his wine-cellars into manufactories for the produce of cast coins, and moderns squeezes from Roman lamps.

10. (mining) The gradual closing of workings by the weight of the overlying strata.
11. (dated) The situation experienced by a middleman when pressured from both sides, especially financially.
12. (dated) A bribe, fee, or extortionary price paid to a middleman, especially in China; the practice of requiring such a bribe or fee.

Translations

See also

• squash
• squeegee
• squish
• margin squeeze

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