snaphance
Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word snaphance. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word snaphance, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say snaphance in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word snaphance you have here. The definition of the word snaphance will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofsnaphance, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
Dutch snaphaan (“a gun”), originally, the snapping cock of a gun. See snap and hen.
Noun
snaphance (plural snaphances)
- A spring lock for discharging a firearm.
- The firearm to which it is attached.
- (obsolete) A trifling or second-rate thing or person.
- 1539 April 9, Cuthbert Tunstall, A Sermon of Cuthbert Tonstall, Bishop of Durham, Preached on Palm Sunday, 1539, before King Henry VIII. , London: ] for T Rodd, , published 1823, →OCLC:
- o make this realme a praye to al venturers, al ſpoylers, all ſnaphanſes, all forlornehopes, all cormerauntes, all reuenours of the worlde, that wyll inuade this realme, is to ſaye, thou poſſeſſyoner of any landes of this realme, of what degree ſo euer thou be, fro the higheſt to the loweſt, ſhalte be ſlayne and deſtroyed, and thy landes taken frome the by thoſe that wyl haue al for them ſelfes.
- (obsolete) A snappish retort.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “snaphance”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)