- 1
To grab something fast, before anyone else can get it. If there are six cakes and ten people, the person who snaffles two is the one who moved first. British and Australian, informal, and always a bit light-hearted — you snaffle , a good seat, the last parking space, someone's pen off their desk. The taking is usually quick, slightly cheeky, and not really serious ; if it were serious you would say steal. Because it sounds playful, people also use it for winning or getting something desirable ahead of rivals: a team snaffles a good player, a company snaffles a contract. Note the word carries a small hint of "and now it's mine and you can't have it", which is why it often shows up with a smile in the sentence. Americans mostly don't use this word and may not know it; snag or nab is what they would say. There is also a completely separate horse-riding snaffle — a simple type of bit that goes in a horse's mouth — but that is a different meaning from the one here.
（趕在別人之前）搶走、順走、先撈走。語氣輕鬆，像「順手拿走」「先搶下來」，不是「偷竊」那麼嚴重
組成Probably from Dutch snavel "snout, bird's bill", from Middle Dutch snabbe "beak". The picture behind the word is a beak snapping something up — which fits the fast, grabbing sense well.
同家族的字
- neban old English word for a beak or nose, from the same Germanic root as the Dutch word behind snaffle
原始詞典資料8 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
snafflenoun/ˈsnæfəl/
- 1
A broad-mouthed, loose-ringed bit (metal in a horse's mouth). It brings pressure to bear on the tongue and the corners of the mouth, and is often used as a training bit.
- Captain went out in the cab all the morning. Harry came in after school to feed me and give me water. In the afternoon I was put into the cab. Jerry took as much pains to see if the collar and bridle fitted comfortably, as if he had been John Manly over again. When the crupper was let out a hole or two, it all fitted well. There was no bearing rein—no curb—nothing but a plain ring snaffle. What a blessing that was!
- “I shall have to take the mare to-morrow,” said the Tertium Quid, “and she will stand nothing heavier than a snaffle.”
- 2
Decorative wear that looks like a snaffle.
- Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.[…]A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.
snaffleverb/ˈsnæfəl/
- 1
To put a snaffle on, or control with a snaffle.
- 2
To quell or suppress.
- Julian Joolby, when will you learn to snaffle your violent emotion?
- 3
To clutch by the bridle.
- 4
informalTo grab or seize; to snap up.
- “That was my inspiration back in 2005,” he says, snaffling his third roll.
- 5
informalTo purloin, or obtain by devious means.
- […] the Master at Arms, the senior member of the lower deck and chief policeman, was found to be drunk; he must have snaffled some of the crew's rum ration always kept closely guarded in a special locker […]
- 6
archaicTo talk foolishly.
- In Norfolk, "jaffle" is used in the sense of idle discourse, of an indecent or malicious character; and a prating busybody is said to be "always a snaffling and jafflin about what don't concern him."
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。