snack

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /snæk/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch snacken (“to snack”).

Noun

snack (plural snacks)

1. A light meal.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:meal

2. An item of food eaten between meals.
   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:

     The numbers thin out the further we get from London, so I don't feel guilty when I remove my mask momentarily to scoff some of the snacks I'd bought at Marylebone.

3. (slang) A very sexy and attractive person.
   • 2008, Scott Sherman, First You Fall: A Kevin Connor Mystery, Alyson Publications:

     Up close, he was a total snack. “That was pretty slick.” “Well.” He cocked his head, “I'm a pretty slick guy.” “I'm Kevin,” I said. “Romeo,” he put out his hand. “You're kidding.”

   • 2019, Loy A. Webb, The Light, Concord Theatricals, →ISBN, page 22:

     You were looking like a snack. I was looking like a snack. We were finally going to do what two snacks do... I immediately went into my routine. Covers on. Lights off. But you Mr. Tate...you softly grabbed my hand, kissed it, and turned the lights back on.

   • 2020, Gena Showalter, Prince of Stone, HQN Books, →ISBN:

     Her confusion amped up. But so did her attraction. He was a total snack.

Alternative forms

• (attractive person): snacc

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• munchies
• fast food
• takeaway

Verb

snack (third-person singular simple present snacks, present participle snacking, simple past and past participle snacked)

1. To eat a light meal.
   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 66:

     Insult is added to injury when I see the West Coast Railways dining train at the adjacent platform, where guests are sat snacking and drinking wine at a very sociable distance.

2. To eat between meals.

   Coordinate term: graze

Derived terms

• snack down on
• snacker

Translations

Etymology 2

See snatch (transitive verb). Ultimately of the same origin as the word under Etymology 1, but perhaps through a different source.

Noun

snack (plural snacks)

1. (obsolete) A share; a part or portion.
   • 1735 January 13 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1734), [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London: J Wright for Lawton Gilliver , →OCLC, page 4, lines 65–66:

     All my demurrs but double his attacks; / At laſt he vvhiſpers, "Do; and vve go ſnacks."

   • 1894 July 5, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Hammerpond Park Burglary”, in The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents, London: Methuen & Co. , published 1895, →OCLC, pages 216–217:

     "Have you exhibited very much?" said Young Person in the bar-parlour of the "Coach and Horses," where Mr Watkins was skilfully accumulating local information on the night of his arrival. / "Very little," said Mr Watkins, "just a snack here and there."

Verb

snack (third-person singular simple present snacks, present participle snacking, simple past and past participle snacked)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To snatch.
2. (obsolete, transitive) To bite.
3. (obsolete, transitive) To share.

References

• OED

Anagrams

• nacks

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /snɛk/

• Audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English snack, from Middle Dutch snacken (from which snakken).

Noun

snack m (plural snacks, diminutive snackje n)

1. snack

Derived terms

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

snack

1. inflection of snacken:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

French

Etymology

From English snack, from Middle Dutch snacken.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /snak/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

snack m (plural snacks)

1. snack bar

   Synonym: snack-bar

Further reading

• “snack”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English snack.

Noun

snack n (plural snackuri)

1. snack

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsnak/ , /esˈnak/
• Rhymes: -ak
• Syllabification: snack

Noun

snack m (plural snacks)

1. snack

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Swedish

Etymology

Deverbal from snacka (“to chat, to talk”).

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Noun

snack n (uncountable)

1. (colloquial) talk, speech
2. (colloquial) a talk

   Kan vi ta ett snack?

   Could we have a talk?

3. (colloquial, sometimes) bull, nonsense, empty talk (mostly from "snack" sounding colloquial and lending itself to such usage)

   Äh, vilket snack!

   Eh, what a load of nonsense!

   mycket snack och lite substans

   plenty of hot air and little substance

4. (idiomatic, colloquial, in "(det är) inget snack om saken" ((there is) no talk of the matter)) (there is) no question about it (it definitely is the case)

   Han är skyldig. Det är inget snack om saken.

   He is guilty. There is no question about it.

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

• snacka

References

• snack in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• snack in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)