snatch.
To grasp and remove quickly.
Meaning & usage
To grasp and remove quickly.
He snatched up the phone.
She snatched the letter out of the secretary's hand.
To attempt to seize something suddenly.
to snatch at a rope
To take or seize hastily, abruptly, or without permission or ceremony.
to snatch a kiss
To steal.
Someone has just snatched my purse!
To take (a victory) at the last moment.
To do something quickly in the limited time available.
He snatched a sandwich before catching the train.
He snatched a glimpse of her while her mother had her back turned.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English snacchen, snecchen (“to snap; seize”), from Old English *snæċċan, *sneċċan, from Proto-West Germanic *snakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *snakjaną (“to whiff, sniff, catch wind of; to taste-test, nibble”), related to Proto-Germanic *snakōną (“to breathe, blow, sigh”) and *snakkōną (“to blather, jabber, chatter”). Cognate with Middle Dutch snacken (“to snap [of a dog]”), Norwegian Nynorsk snaka (“to snatch [of animals]”). Related also to Dutch snakken (“to sob, pant, long for”), Low German snacken (“to chatter”), German schnacken (“to chat”), Danish snakke (“to chat”) and Norwegian snakke (“to chat”). Related to snack.
A quick grab or catch.
The leftfielder makes a nice snatch to end the inning.
A short period.
A competitive weightlifting event in which a barbell is lifted from the platform to locked arms overhead in a smooth continuous movement.
A piece of some sound, usually music or conversation.
I heard a snatch of Mozart as I passed the open window.
The vulva.
Rapid, uncommanded jerking or oscillation of the ailerons of some aircraft at high Mach numbers, resulting from shock wave formation at transonic speeds.
A brief period of exertion.
A catching of the voice.
A hasty snack; a bite to eat.
A quibble.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English snacchen, snecchen (“to snap; seize”), from Old English *snæċċan, *sneċċan, from Proto-West Germanic *snakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *snakjaną (“to whiff, sniff, catch wind of; to taste-test, nibble”), related to Proto-Germanic *snakōną (“to breathe, blow, sigh”) and *snakkōną (“to blather, jabber, chatter”). Cognate with Middle Dutch snacken (“to snap [of a dog]”), Norwegian Nynorsk snaka (“to snatch [of animals]”). Related also to Dutch snakken (“to sob, pant, long for”), Low German snacken (“to chatter”), German schnacken (“to chat”), Danish snakke (“to chat”) and Norwegian snakke (“to chat”). Related to snack.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.