snare

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And yet--snare or no snare, intentionally or unintentionally--here he was, prettily trapped; and for the life of him he could see no way out of it again.

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Definitions (23)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun A trapping device, often consisting of a noose, used for capturing birds and small mammals.
  2. noun Something that serves to entangle the unwary.
  3. noun A surgical instrument with a wire loop controlled by a mechanism in the handle, used to remove growths, such as tumors and polyps.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (7)

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Examples (50)

  • It looked like a snare, and yet who could suppose a snare in such a quiet by-street and in a house of so prosperous and even noble an exterior? —  The Short-story
  • And yet--snare or no snare, intentionally or unintentionally--here he was, prettily trapped; and for the life of him he could see no way out of it again. —  The Short-story
  • When smaller flies happen to fall into the snare, the spider does not sally out at once, but very patiently waits till it is sure of them; for upon his immediately approaching, the terror of his appearance might give the captive strength sufficient to get loose; the manner then is to wait patiently till by ineffectual and impotent struggles the captive has wasted all its strength, and then it becomes a certain and easy conquest The insect I am now describing lived three years; every year it changed its skin and got a new set of legs. —  The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IV (of X)—Great Britain and Ireland II
  • But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. —  Usury A Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View
  • Physical beauty of every sort was a snare, a Circean enchantment, to be valiantly contended with and straitly eschewed. —  The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

wiles ·  lure ·  trap ·  misrepresentations ·  noose ·  hoax ·  trickery ·  artifice ·  temptation ·  subterfuge ·  pitfall ·  machinations

Used in the same contextWord Family

snare:   snaring ·  snared
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old English snearu and from Old Norse snara.
  2. Probably from Dutch snaar, string, from Middle Dutch snāre.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English snare, from Anglo-Saxon sncar, a string, cord, = Middle Dutch snare, snaere, Dutch snaar = Middle Low German snare = Old High German snarahha, snaracha, snara, Middle High German snar, a string, noose, = Icelandic Swedish snara = Danish snare, a noose, snare, gin; from a strong verb preserved in Old High German Middle High German snerhan, snerhen, bind tightly (cf. Icelandic snara (weak verb), turn quickly, twist, wring); Teutonicsnarh, Indo-Europeansnark, draw together, contract, in Greek νἁρκη, cramp, numbness (see narcissus); perhaps an extended form of √ snar, twist, bind, in Lithuanian nerti, thread a needle, draw into a chain, Latin nervus = Greek νεῦρον, a sinew, nerve: see nerve. Connection with D. snoer = Middle Low German snōr = Old High German Middle High German snuor, German schnur, a cord, band, rope, = Icelandic snæri (for snæri = Swedish snöre = Danish snor), a twisted string, = Gothic (Moesogothic) snōrjō, basket, woven work, and with the related Anglo-Saxon snōd, English snood, and Old Irish snāthe, snāth, a thread, Latin nēre, spin, Sanskrit snasā, snāyu, snāva, a tendon, sinew, etc., is uncertain. Hence ult. snarl.
  2. from Middle English snaren; from snare, n. Cf. Icelandic snara = Swedish snärja = Danish snære, turn quickly, twist, wring.
 

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/snɛr/
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