subs. (old).—1. A shuffling answer; an evasive reply.
1603. SHAKESPEARE, Measure for Measure, iv. 2, 6. Come, sir, leave me your SNATCHES, and yield me a direct answer.
2. (old).—A hasty meal; a SNACK (q.v.): also SNATCH AND AWAY.
1573. TUSSER, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, 168. A SNATCH and to worke, fellowes tarrie not here.
1585. FLEMING, The Nomenclator, 81a. Prandium statarium … Manger debout, ou en pied. A standing dinner, which is eaten in haste: a SNATCH AND AWAY.
1623. MASSINGER, The Duke of Milan, iii. 2.
| Gentlew. I fear you’ll have cold entertainment, when | |
| You are at your journey’s end; and ’twere discretion | |
| To take a SNATCH by the way. |
3. (venery).—A hasty act of kind; a FLYER (q.v.).
1621. BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, III. II. v. 3. They had rather go to the stews, or have now and then a SNATCH as they can come by it, borrow of their neighbours, than have wives of their own. Ibid. I could not abide marriage, but as a rambler I took a SNATCH when I could get it.
IN (or BY) SNATCHES, phr. (colloquial).—By fits and starts; spasmodically: also SNATCHY.
1573–9. G. HARVEY, Letters (Camden Society), 178. I purpose to heare M. Doctor Bing, and “get” gleane as mutch as I can BI SNATCHES.
1865. DICKENS, Our Mutual Friend, II. iv. As necessary as their transaction of business together in a gipsy way at untimely hours of the morning and evening, and in rushes and SNATCHES.
1865. L. STEPHEN, Sketches from Cambridge, 16. The modern style seems short and SNATCHY; it has not the long majestic sweep of former days.
