/snɛ(ə)ɹ/, /snɛə/, /sneː/
OriginFrom 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.”
“[…] and I had now liv’d two Years under these Uneasinesses, which indeed made my Life much less comfortable than it was before; as may well be imagin’d by any who know what it is to live in the consta”
- 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.
- Any of a class of proteins whose primary role is to mediate vesicle fusion.
- transitiveTo catch or hold, especially with a loop.
“The mournful crocodile / With sorrow snares relenting passengers.”
“Lest that too heavenly form […] snare them.”
“Instead, it aimed for a more important assurance: that if A.I. raises writers’ productivity or the quality of their output, guild members should snare an equitable share of the performance gains. And ”
- figuratively, transitiveTo ensnare.
- intransitive, transitive, uncommonTo 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.”
“[…] drummer snaring away on his little drum, tur-r-r-rump! tur-r-r-rump! tur-r-r-rump! r-r-rump, r-r-rump, r-r-rump! I love drums.”
Formssnares(plural) · snares(present, singular, third-person) · snaring(participle, present) · snared(participle, past) · snared(past) · Snares(plural) · SNAREs(plural)