snare

From Middle English snare, from Old English sneare (“a string; cord”), from Proto-Germanic *snarhǭ (“a sling; loop; noose”). Cognate with Old Norse snara. Also related to German Schnur and Dutch snaar, snoer.

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛə(r)

snare (plural snares)

Bird caught in a snare

Drum fitted with snare wires

1. A trap (especially one made from a loop of wire, string, or leather).
   • 1943, Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear, London: Heinemann, 1960, Book Three, Chapter One, pp. 196-197,

     He […] watched Beavis’s long-toothed mouth open and clap to like a rabbit snare.

   • 2013, Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, New York: Knopf, 2014, Chapter 18, p. 332,

     He felt a snare tightening around his throat; he gasped and threw a leg out of the bed, where it jerked for a second or two, thumping the steel frame, and died.

2. A mental or psychological trap.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act IV, Scene 2,

     If thou retire, the Dauphin, well appointed,

     Stands with the snares of war to tangle thee:

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Exodus 23.33,

     […] if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, p. 193,

     […] and I had now liv’d two Years under these Uneasinesses, which indeed made my Life much less comfortable than it was before; as may well be imagin’d by any who know what it is to live in the constant Snare of the Fear of Man […]

   • 1865, Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters, Chapter ,

     “ […] riches are a great snare.”

   • 1978, Jan Morris, Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Part One, Chapter 9, p. 173,

     They were devious war aims, and Allenby’s campaign was fought with a maximum of snare and subterfuge.

3. (veterinary) A loop of cord used in obstetric cases, to hold or to pull a fetus from the mother animal.
4. (surgery) A similar looped instrument formerly used to remove tumours etc.
5. (music) A set of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin of a drum to create a rattling sound.
6. (music) A snare drum.

snare (third-person singular simple present snares, present participle snaring, simple past and past participle snared)

1. (transitive) To catch or hold, especially with a loop.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Lest that too heavenly form […] snare them.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     The mournful crocodile / With sorrow snares relenting passengers.

2. (transitive, figuratively) To ensnare.

• ensnare
• snare drum
• snarl

• Naser, Nears, RNase, Saner, Serna, eRNAs, earns, ernas, nares, nears, reans, saner

snare

1. definite singular of snar
2. plural of snar

snare

1. definite singular of snar
2. plural of snar

snare

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of snar.