snap

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
snap/snap/

▶verb (snaps, snapping, snapped)

• 1 break with a sharp cracking sound.

• 2 (of an animal) make a sudden audible bite.

  ■ (snap something up) quickly secure something that is in short supply.

• 3 open or close with a brisk movement or sharp sound.

• 4 suddenly lose one's self-control.

  ■ say something quickly and irritably.

• 5 (snap out of) informal get out of (a bad mood) by a sudden effort.

• 6 take a snapshot of.

• 7 American Football put (the ball) into play by a quick backward movement.

▶noun

• 1 an act or sound of snapping.

• 2 (usu. cold snap) a brief period of cold weather.

• 3 vigour; liveliness.

• 4 a snapshot.

• 5 Brit. a card game in which players compete to call ‘snap’ as soon as two cards of the same type are exposed.

• 6 a crisp, brittle biscuit.

• 7 N. Amer. informal an easy task.

• 8 N. Amer. a press stud.

▶adjective done or taken on the spur of the moment: a snap decision.

– phrases
in a snap informal, chiefly N. Amer. in a moment.

– derivatives
snappable adjective,
snapping adjective,
snappingly adverb.

– origin C15: prob. from MDu. or Mid. Low Ger. snappen ‘seize’; partly imitative.