Snag Meaning
/snæɡ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch.
nounA dead tree that remains standing.
Sentence Examples
The coldest temperature ever recorded in Canada was −63 °C in Snag, Yukon.
I'm afraid that there's a little snag.
We hit a snag, but found a workaround.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The project was on track until we encountered a major ____ that stopped everything.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The project hit a small ____ when we realized we were missing one of the essential components.
Word Origin & History
From earlier snag (“stump or branch of a tree”), from Middle English *snagge, *snage, from Old Norse snagi (“clothes peg”) (compare Old Norse snag-hyrndr (“snag-horned, having jagged corners”)), perhaps ultimately from a derivative of Proto-Germanic *snakk-, *snēgg, variations of *snakaną (“to crawl, creep, wind about”). Compare Norwegian snag, snage (“protrusion; projecting point”), Icelandic snagi (“peg”). Also see Dutch snoek (“pike”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The coat of arms / Now on a naked snag in triumph borne."
— 1697, Virgil, “The Ninth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
"‘A’most used-up I am, I do declare!’ she observed. ‘The jolting in the cars is pretty nigh as bad as if the rail was full of snags and sawyers.’"
— 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC:
"[…]I watched for sunken stones; I was learning to clap my teeth smartly before my heart flew out, when I shaved by a fluke some infernal sly old snag that would have ripped the life out of the tin-pot steamboat and drowned all the pilgrims;[…]"
— 1899 (please specify the page), Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part:
"To ſee our Women's Teeth look white. / And ev'ry ſaucy ill-bred Fellow / Sneers at a Mouth profoundly yellow. / In China none hold Women ſweet, / Except their Snags are black as jett."
— 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, canto II, page 354:
"The snag in this business of falling in love, aged relative, is that the parties of the first part so often get mixed up with the wrong parties of the second part, robbed of their cooler judgment by the parties of the second part's glamour."
— 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The project was on track until we encountered a major ____ that stopped everything.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The project hit a small ____ when we realized we were missing one of the essential components.