Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A rough, sharp, or jagged protuberance, as.
  • noun A dead or partly dead tree that is still standing.
  • noun A tree or a part of a tree that is sunken in or protrudes above a body of water and is a danger to navigation.
  • noun A snaggletooth.
  • noun A short or imperfectly developed branch of a deer's antler.
  • noun A break, pull, or tear in fabric.
  • noun An unforeseen or hidden obstacle or difficulty.
  • intransitive verb To tear, break, hinder, or destroy by or as if by a snag.
  • intransitive verb Informal To catch or obtain quickly or unexpectedly.
  • intransitive verb To free of snags.
  • intransitive verb To catch (a fish), especially by hooking in a place other than its mouth.
  • intransitive verb To be damaged by a snag.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To catch or run upon a snag: as, to snag a fish-hook; to snag, a steamboat.
  • Figuratively, to entangle; embarrass; bring to a standstill.
  • To fill with snags; act as a snag to.
  • To clear of snags.
  • noun A sharp protuberance; a projecting point; a jag.
  • noun Specifically A short projecting stump, stub, or branch; the stubby base of a broken or cut-off branch or twig; a jagged branch separate from the tree.
  • noun A tree, or part of a tree, lying in the water with its branches at or near the surface, so as to be dangerous to navigation.
  • noun Hence A hidden danger or obstacle; an unsuspected source or occasion of error or mistake; a stnmbling-block.
  • noun 5. A snag-tooth.
  • noun The fang or root of a tooth.
  • noun A branch or tine on the antler of a deer; a point. See cut under antler.
  • noun plural The fruit of the snag-bush.
  • noun In mech., a lug, or projection from a surface, through which there is a hole to receive a bolt or pin.
  • noun A snail.
  • To trim by lopping branches; cut the branches, knots, or protuberances from, as the stem of a tree.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. To cut the snags or branches from, as the stem of a tree; to hew roughly.
  • transitive verb United States To injure or destroy, as a steamboat or other vessel, by a snag, or projecting part of a sunken tree.
  • noun A stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch; a knot; a protuberance.
  • noun A tooth projecting beyond the rest; contemptuously, a broken or decayed tooth.
  • noun 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.
  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the secondary branches of an antler.
  • noun [U.S.] a steamboat fitted with apparatus for removing snags and other obstructions in navigable streams.
  • noun Same as Snag, 2.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch; a knot; a protuberance.
  • noun A tooth projecting beyond the rest; a broken or decayed tooth.
  • noun 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.
  • noun figuratively A problem or difficulty with something.
  • noun A pulled thread or yarn, as in cloth.
  • noun One of the secondary branches of an antler.
  • verb To catch or tear (e.g. fabric) upon a rough surface or projection.
  • verb 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.
  • verb slang To obtain or pick up (something).
  • verb UK, dialect To cut the snags or branches from, as the stem of a tree; to hew roughly.
  • noun UK, dialect, obsolete A light meal.
  • noun A misnaged, an opponent to Chassidic Judaism (more likely modern, for cultural reasons).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an opening made forcibly as by pulling apart
  • verb hew jaggedly
  • verb get by acting quickly and smartly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Of Scandinavian origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse snagi ("clothes peg").

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Examples

Comments

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  • So, what exactly would it mean to "snag a snag?"

    September 17, 2009

  • You're fishing in a reservoir whose bottom is rife with trees that died when the dam was completed and the water flooded a valley behind the dam. Your hook gets caught on one of the submerged dead trees. That's how one can snag a snag. Mighty frustrating.

    September 17, 2009

  • Good Lord, lead us,

    Good Lord speed us,

    From all perils protect us,

    From the darkness us direct;

    Finest nights to land our fish,

    Sound and big to fill our wish.

    God keep our nets from snag and break,

    For every man a goodly take,

    Lord grant us.

    - The ancient Spedwell Prayer, Britain

    October 23, 2009

  • Australian slang: sausage

    "She leaves the spuds boiling on the stove and the snags spitting on low heat to go upstairs to listen to him tinkling on the piano."

    Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, p 158 of the Graywolf Press hardcover edition

    March 31, 2010

  • In australia snag is both a sensitive new age guy or a sausage on the BBQ

    June 29, 2012

  • https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAM98ldsgvw/

    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=snag

    TIL: in indigenous slang, a snag is a one-night stand hookup type person.

    September 22, 2024