snare

noun

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L27890 on Wikidata ↗

verb

catch in a snare

L333048 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /snɛ(ə)ɹ/ / /snɛə/ / /sneː/

name

Etymology: * As a Norwegian surname, from several farms whose name derive from snar (“thicket, brushwood”), perhaps related to Old Norse snarpr (“coarse, rough, sharp”). * As an English surname, variant of Snarr.

A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English snare, from Old English sneare (“snare, noose”), from Proto-West Germanic *snarhā, from Proto-Germanic *snarhǭ (“a sling; loop; noose”). Cognate with Old Norse snara. Also related to German Schnur and Dutch snaar, snoer.

A trap (especially one made from a loop of wire, string, or leather).
“He […] watched Beavis’s long-toothed mouth open and clap to like a rabbit snare.”
“He felt a snare tightening around his throat; he gasped and threw a leg out of the bed, where it jerked for a second or two, thumping the steel frame, and died.”
A mental or psychological trap.
“If thou retire, the Dauphin, well appointed, Stands with the snares of war to tangle thee:”
“[…] if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.”
A loop of cord used in obstetric cases, to hold or to pull a fetus from the mother animal.
A similar looped instrument formerly used to remove tumours etc.
A set of stiff wires held under tension against the bottom head of a drum to create a rattling sound.
A snare drum.

verb

To catch or hold, especially with a loop.
“The mournful crocodile / With sorrow snares relenting passengers.”
“Lest that too heavenly form […] snare them.”
To ensnare.
To play (a snare drum, or a beat on or as if on a snare drum).
“[…] the slightest recollection of hearing the wind whistling through the cracks in the old house or the rain snaring its tat-a-tat on the rusty tin roof.”
“[…] T-Ray snared the drum in the background.”