snare
UK/snɛə//snɛ(ə)ɹ/
snare noun: a trap (especially one made from a loop of wire, string, or leather).
Noun (1)
snare (plural snares)
- A trap (especially one made from a loop of wire, string, or leather).
- He […] watched Beavis’s long-toothed mouth open and clap to like a rabbit snare.1943, Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear, London: Heinemann, published 1960, Book Three, Chapter One, pp. 196-197
- 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.2013, Richard Flanagan, chapter 18, in The Narrow Road to the Deep North, New York: Knopf, published 2014, page 332
- A mental or psychological trap.
- If thou retire, the Dauphin, well appointed,
Stands with the snares of war to tangle thee:1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]... - […] if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 23:33
- If thou retire, the Dauphin, well appointed,
- A loop of cord used in obstetric cases, to hold or to pull a fetus from the mother animal.
- A similar looped instrument formerly used to remove tumours etc.
- A set of stiff wires held under tension against the bottom head of a drum to create a rattling sound.
- A snare drum.
Verb
snare (third-person singular simple present snares, present participle snaring, simple past and past participle snared)
- To catch or hold, especially with a loop.
- The mournful crocodile / With sorrow snares relenting passengers.c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
- Lest that too heavenly form […] snare them.1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- To ensnare.
- To play (a snare drum, or a beat on or as if on a snare drum).
- […] the slightest recollection of hearing the wind whistling through the cracks in the old house or the rain snaring its tat-a-tat on the rusty tin roof.2007 April 11, M. J. Eberhart, Ten Million Steps: Nimblewill Nomad's Epic 10-Month Trek from the Florida Keys to Québec, Menasha Ridge Press, →ISBN, page 123
- […] T-Ray snared the drum in the background.2010 December 31, Laura Quimby, The Carnival of Lost Souls: A Handcuff Kid Novel, Abrams, →ISBN
Noun (2) capitalized: SNARE
SNARE (plural SNAREs)
Proper noun capitalized: Snare
Snare (plural Snares)
- A surname.
snare meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
snare in Hindi
- snare, trap
- दाम dām
- snare, trap, clutches
- फंदा phandā
snare in Tamil
- trap
- பொறி poṟi
snare in Urdu
- دام, جال, پھندا, پھسل پھندا, دام میں لانا, ڈورا
snare in Bengali
- ফাঁদ, জাল
More languagesFewer languages
- snare in Malayalam
- കെണി keṇi
- snare in Kannada
- ಬೆಳ್ಳಾರ, ಉರುಳು, ಬೋನು, ಬಲೆ
- snare in Sanskrit
- प्लव plavá
- snare in Assamese
- ছিটিকা sitika
- snare in Arabic
- شَرَكٌ šarakun, مِصْيَدَةٌ miṣyadatun
- snare in Persian
- دام dâm, پهند pahand, لاتو lâtu
- snare in Thai
- กับ gàp
Examples of snare in a sentence
- They were devious war aims, and Allenby’s campaign was fought with a maximum of snare and subterfuge.1978, Jan Morris, Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Part One, Chapter 9, p. 173:
- Instead, it aimed for a more important assurance: that if A.I. raises writers’ productivity or the quality of their output, guild members should snare an equitable share of the performance gains.2023 September 29, Adam Seth Litwin, “Want to Save Your Job From A.I.? Hollywood Screenwriters Just Showed You How.”, in The New York...
Forms of snare
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | snares |
| plural | SNAREs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | snares |
| present participle | snaring |
| past participle | snared |
| past | snared |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Snares |
Origin of snare
From Middle English snare, from Old English sneare (“snare, noose”), from Proto-West Germanic *snarhā, from Proto-Germanic *snarhǭ (“a sling; loop; noose”). Cognate with Old Norse snara. Also related to German Schnur and Dutch snaar, snoer.
Short for SNAP receptor.
* As a Norwegian surname, from several farms whose name derive from snar (“thicket, brushwood”), perhaps related to Old Norse snarpr (“coarse, rough, sharp”). * As an English surname, variant of Snarr.
Phrases with snare
Words that rhyme with snare
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- declare
- hair
- Sinclair
- where
- ayr
- care
- layer
- mayor
- parterre
- fare
- glare
- lair
- pear
- prayer
- compare
- dare
- rare
- share
- swear
- ware
- wear and tear
- Ayer
- blare
- flair
- forbear
- Kerr
- laissez faire
- mousquetaire
- pare
- prepare
- repair
- stare
- unfair
- yare
- -ware
- abear
- aflare
- despair
- glair
- heir
- impair
- Pierre
- reair
- scare
- tare
- trillionaire
- Voltaire
- aware
Questions about snare
- What does snare mean?
- Snare means a trap (especially one made from a loop of wire, string, or leather).
- What is snare in Hindi?
- Snare in Hindi is दाम (dām), फंदा (phandā). See Snare meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use snare in a sentence?
- They were devious war aims, and Allenby’s campaign was fought with a maximum of snare and subterfuge.
- What part of speech is snare?
- Snare can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce snare?
- Snare is pronounced /snɛ(ə)ɹ/ (US).
- What is the plural of snare?
- The plural of snare is snares.
Words near snare in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: snare (page history and authors); SNARE (page history and authors); Snare (page history and authors); दाम (Hindi) (page history and authors); snare (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); snare (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); snare (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); प्लव (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); ছিটিকা (Assamese) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-snare.ogg.
Cite this entry: “snare.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/snare. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.