snaffle
Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word snaffle. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word snaffle, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say snaffle in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word snaffle you have here. The definition of the word snaffle will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofsnaffle, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
Apparently from Dutch snavel, from Middle Dutch snavel, snabel (“snout”), diminutive of Middle Dutch snabbe, snebbe (“bird's bill, neb”). Akin to Old Frisian snavel (“mouth”), Middle Low German snabbe (“neb, beak”), Old English nebb (“beak, bill, nose, face”). More at neb.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsnæfəl/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -æfəl
Noun
snaffle (plural snaffles)
- A broad-mouthed, loose-ringed bit (metal in a horse's mouth). It brings pressure to bear on the tongue and the corners of the mouth, and is often used as a training bit.
- , Anna Sewell, “A London Cab Horse”, in Black Beauty: , London: Jarrold and Sons, , →OCLC, part III, page 158:
- Captain went out in the cab all the morning. Harry came in after school to feed me and give me water. In the afternoon I was put into the cab. Jerry took as much pains to see if the collar and bridle fitted comfortably, as if he had been John Manly over again. When the crupper was let out a hole or two, it all fitted well. There was no bearing rein—no curb—nothing but a plain ring snaffle. What a blessing that was!
- 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “At the Pit's Mouth”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 54:
- “I shall have to take the mare to-morrow,” said the Tertium Quid, “and she will stand nothing heavier than a snaffle.”
- (figuratively) Decorative wear that looks like a snaffle.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.
Synonyms
Verb
snaffle (third-person singular simple present snaffles, present participle snaffling, simple past and past participle snaffled)
- (transitive) To put a snaffle on, or control with a snaffle.
- (transitive) To clutch by the bridle.
- (transitive, informal) To grab or seize; to snap up.
- (transitive, informal) To purloin, or obtain by devious means.
- 2014, Geoffrey Bennett, The Battles of Coronel and the Falklands, 1914:
- the Master at Arms, the senior member of the lower deck and chief policeman, was found to be drunk; he must have snaffled some of the crew's rum ration always kept closely guarded in a special locker
- (UK, Norfolk, intransitive, archaic) To talk foolishly.
- 1855, Notes and Queries, volume 11, page 391:
- In Norfolk, "jaffle" is used in the sense of idle discourse, of an indecent or malicious character; and a prating busybody is said to be "always a snaffling and jafflin about what don't concern him."
Derived terms
References
- (talk foolishly): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary