snag

CEFRB2

/snæɡ/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    To catch or tear on something sharp; an unexpected problem.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A dead tree that remains standing.

Examples

  • I'm afraid that there's a little snag.

  • The coldest temperature ever recorded in Canada was −63 °C in Snag, Yukon.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /snaɡ/
  • /sneɪ̯ɡ/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A tree, or a branch of a tree, fixed in the bottom of a river or other navigable water, and rising nearly or quite to the surface, by which boats are sometimes pierced and sunk.

  2. A stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch.

  3. A tooth projecting beyond the others; a broken or decayed tooth.

More examples

In context

  • We hit a snag, but found a workaround.

  • Be careful not to snag your stockings on that concrete bench!

  • The steamboat was snagged on the Mississippi River in 1862.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The project was on track until we encountered a major blank that stopped everything.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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”).