’snails, a profane oath, for ‘God’s nails’, i.e. ‘Christ’s nails’ on the Cross. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several Weapons, v. 1 (Pompey); London Prodigal, v. 1. 222. Cp. Chaucer, ‘By goddes precious herte, and by his nayles’ (C. T. C. 651).
snakes: To eat snakes was a recipe for enabling one to grow younger. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, i. 2 (Orlando); Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, iv. 4 (Andrew).
snaphance, a flint-lock used in muskets and pistols, Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 1 (Dromio); a musket or gun fitted with a flint-lock, Capt. Smith, Virginia, iii. 12. 93 (NED.). Du. snaphaan, ‘a firelock, fusee, snaphaunce’ (Sewel).
snaphance, an armed robber, a highwayman. Holinshed, Chron. ii. 684. Du. ‘snaphaan, a Fuselier carrying a snaphaan’ (Sewel), also a mounted highwayman. Cp. G. schnapphahn in 1494, schnapphan, a highwayman (Brant, Narrenschiff); schnapphahn in prov. Germ. has also the meaning of constable, thief-catcher. See Weigand and H. Paul (s.v.). Cp. F. chenapan, ‘mot tiré de l’Allemand, où il désigne un brigand des Montagnes noires; en François, il signifie un vaurien, un bandit’, Dict. de l’Acad., 1762.
snapper, to trip, to stumble. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 15, l. 4; id., Ware the Hauke, 142; ‘I snapper as a horse dothe that tryppeth, Je trippette’, Palsgrave. A north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Snapper, vb.1 1). ME. snapere, to stumble: ‘Thi foot schal not snapere’ (Wyclif, Prov. iii. 23); snapir (Wars Alex. 847).
snar, to snarl; ‘Tygres that did seeme to gren And snar at all’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 27. Cp. Du. snarren, to snarl (Hexham).
snarl, to ensnare, entangle. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 17; J. Beaumont, Psyche, ix. 275; Palsgrave. A north-country word for snaring hares or rabbits, see EDD. (s.v. Snarl, vb.2 2). ME. snarlyn, ‘illaqueo’ (Prompt.).
snatch, a trap, snare, entanglement; ‘The Chevalier . . . being taken in a Gin like unto a Snatch’, Shelton, Quixote, iii. 1; spelt snache, ‘A new-founde snache which did my feet ensnare’. Mirror for Mag., Carassus, st. 43. ME. snacche, a trap, snare (K. Alis. 6559).
sneaker, a sneaking fellow; ‘Clarke is a pitifull proud sneaker’, Reliq. Hearnianae (ed. Bliss, 483); ‘Origlione, an eavesdropper, a listener, . . . a sneaker, a lurking knave’ (Florio).
sneap, to nip or pinch with cold; ‘An envious sneaping Frost’ L. L. L. i. 1. 100; ‘The sneaped birds’, Lucrece, 333. In prov. use in the north of England: ‘They’n do well if they dunna get sneaped wi’ the frost’ (Cheshire), see EDD. (s.v. Snape, vb. 2). Also, to check, repress, reprove, chide, snub, Brome, Antipodes, iv. 9 (NED.); ‘A man quickly sneapt’, Maiden’s Tragedy, iii. 1 (Servant), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 428. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. snaip, to rebuke sharply (Cursor M. 13027), Icel. sneypa, to chide (NED. s.v. Snape, vb.1).