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Pinch vs Snag - What's the difference?

pinch | snag | Related terms |

In lang=en terms the difference between pinch and snag

is that pinch is to arrest or capture while snag is to obtain or pick up (something).

As verbs the difference between pinch and snag

is that pinch is to squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt while snag is to catch or tear (e.g. fabric) upon a rough surface or projection.

As nouns the difference between pinch and snag

is that pinch is the action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt while snag is a stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch; a knot; a protuberance.

pinch

English

Verb

(es)
  • To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
    • The children were scolded for pinching each other.
    This shoe pinches my foot.
  • To steal, usually of something almost trivial or inconsequential.
    • Someone has pinched my handkerchief!
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 13 , author=Alistair Magowan , title=Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Then, as the Sunderland fans' cheers bellowed around the stadium, United's title bid was over when it became apparent City had pinched a last-gasp winner to seal their first title in 44 years.}}
  • (slang) To arrest or capture.
  • (horticulture) To cut shoots]] or [[bud, buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
  • (nautical) To sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.
  • (hunting) To take hold; to grip, as a dog does.
  • (obsolete) To be niggardly or covetous.
    • (Gower)
  • * Franklin
    • the wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare
  • To seize; to grip; to bite; said of animals.
  • * Chapman
    • He [the hound] pinched and pulled her down.
  • (figurative) To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve.
    • to be pinched for money
  • * Sir Walter Raleigh
    • want of room pinching a whole nation
  • To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch.

    • Noun

    (es)
  • The action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
  • A small amount of powder or granules, such that the amount could be held between fingertip and thumb tip.
  • An awkward situation of some kind (especially money or social) which is difficult to escape.
  • * 1955 , edition, ISBN 0553249592, page 171:
    • It took nerve and muscle both to carry the body out and down the stairs to the lower hall, but he damn well had to get it out of his place and away from his door, and any of those four could have done it in a pinch', and it sure was a ' pinch .
  • An organic herbal smoke additive.

    • Derived terms

    * feel the pinch * in a pinch * at a pinch * pinchy * take with a pinch of salt

    Descendants

    * Japanese: (pinchi)

    snag

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch; a knot; a protuberance.
  • * Dryden
    • The coat of arms / Now on a naked snag in triumph borne.
  • Any sharp protuberant part of an object, which may catch, scratch, or tear other objects brought into contact with it.
  • A tooth projecting beyond the rest; a broken or decayed tooth.
    • (Prior)
  • 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.
  • (figuratively) A problem or difficulty with something.
  • *
  • A pulled thread or yarn, as in cloth.
  • One of the secondary branches of an antler.
    • Synonyms
    * (problem or difficulty) hitch
    Derived terms
    * snaggy * snaglike

    Verb

    (snagg)
  • To catch or tear (e.g. fabric) upon a rough surface or projection.
    • Be careful not to snag your stockings on that concrete bench!
  • (fishing) To fish by means of dragging a large hook or hooks on a line, intending to impale the body (rather than the mouth) of the target.
    • We snagged for spoonbill from the eastern shore of the Mississippi river.
  • (slang) To obtain or pick up (something).
    • Ella snagged a bottle of water from the fridge before leaving for her jog.
  • (UK, dialect) To cut the snags or branches from, as the stem of a tree; to hew roughly.
    • (Halliwell)

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (UK, dialect, obsolete) A light meal.
  • (Australia, informal, colloquial) A sausage.
  • * 2005 , Peter Docker, Someone Else?s Country , 2010, ReadHowYouWant, page 116,
    • I fire up the barbie and start cooking snags .
  • * 2007 , Jim Ford, Don't Worry, Be Happy: Beijing to Bombay with a Backpack , page 196,
    • ‘You can get the chooks and snags from the fridge if you want,’ he replied.
    I smiled, remembering my bewilderment upon receiving exactly the same command at my very first barbecue back in Sydney a month after I?d first arrived.
  • * 2010 , Fiona Wallace, Sense and Celebrity , page 25,
    • ‘Hungry? We?ve got plenty of roo,’ one of the men said as she walked up. He pointed with his spatula, ‘and pig snags', cow ' snags , beef and chicken.’
    Synonyms
    * (sausage) banger (qualifier)

    Etymology 3

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A misnaged, an opponent to Chassidic Judaism (more likely modern, for cultural reasons).

    • Anagrams

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) ----