Verb

(secur)

To make safe; to relieve from apprehensions of, or exposure to, danger; to guard; to protect.

* Dryden

I spread a cloud before the victor's sight, / Sustained the vanquished, and secured his flight.

To put beyond hazard of losing or of not receiving; to make certain; to assure; frequently with against'' or ''from'', or formerly with ''of .

to secure''' a creditor against loss; to '''secure a debt by a mortgage

* T. Dick

It secures its possessor of eternal happiness.

To make fast; to close or confine effectually; to render incapable of getting loose or escaping.

to secure''' a prisoner; to '''secure a door, or the hatches of a ship

To get possession of; to make oneself secure of; to acquire certainly.

to secure an estate

* 2014 , Jamie Jackson, " Ángel di María says Manchester United were the ‘only club’ after Real", The Guardian , 26 August 2014:

With the Argentinian secured United will step up their attempt to sign a midfielder and, possibly, a defender in the closing days of the transfer window. Juventus’s Arturo Vidal, Milan’s Nigel de Jong and Ajax’s Daley Blind, who is also a left-sided defensive player, are potential targets.

"[Captain] was able to secure some good photographs of the fortress." (Flight, 1911, p. 766)

* , chapter=3

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.}}

Verb

(transitive) To fracture or break apart suddenly.

He snapped his stick in anger.

If you bend it too much, it will snap .

* Burke

But this weapon will snap short, unfaithful to the hand that employs it.

To give forth or produce a sharp cracking noise; to crack.

Blazing firewood snaps .

To attempt to seize with the teeth or bite.

A dog snaps''' at a passenger. A fish '''snaps at the bait.

To attempt to seize with eagerness.

She snapped at the chance to appear on television.

To speak abruptly or sharply.

He snapped at me for the slightest mistake.

To give way abruptly and loudly.

To suffer a mental breakdown, usually while under tension.

She should take a break before she snaps .

To flash or appear to flash as with light.

To fit or fasten together with a snapping sound.

(intransitive, computing, graphical user interface) To jump to a fixed position relative to another element.

The floating toolbar will snap to the edge of the screen when dragged towards it.

To snatch with or as if with the teeth.

* South

He, by playing too often at the mouth of death, has been snapped by it at last.

To pull apart with a snapping sound; to pop loose.

To say abruptly or sharply.

(dated) To speak to abruptly or sharply; to treat snappishly; usually with up .

(Granville)

To cause something to emit a snapping sound.

to snap a fastener

to snap a whip

To close something using a snap as a fastener.

To snap one's fingers: to make a snapping sound, often by pressing the thumb and an opposing finger of the same hand together and suddenly releasing the grip so that the finger hits against the palm; alternatively, by bringing the index finger quickly down onto the middle finger and thumb.

* Sir Walter Scott

MacMorian snapped his fingers repeatedly.

To cause to move suddenly and smartly.

To take a photograph; to release a camera's shutter (which may make a snapping sound).

He snapped a picture of me with my mouth open and my eyes closed.

(American football) To pass the ball from the center to a back; to hike the ball.

He can snap the ball to a back twenty yards behind him.

To misfire.

The gun snapped .