Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to arrest; thus snabbled adj.

1724		‘Frisky Moll’s Song’ in J. Thurmond Harlequin Sheppard 22: He broke thro’ all Rubbs in the Whitt, / And chiv’d his Darbies in twain / But fileing of a Rumbo Ken, / My Boman is snabbled again.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxix: Bond, or Habbled, or Snabbled Taken.

2. (UK Und.) to seize.

1728

Defoe Street Robberies Considered 34: Smable [sic], taken.

3. to knock down, to plunder.

1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: snabble to rifle, to strip, or plunder. To snabble a Poll, to run away with a Peruque or Head-dress. Also to knock down; to cause to reel or stagger by a Blow on the Head.
1728		T. Walker The Quaker’s Opera II i: And when we come unto the Whit, / Our Darbies to behold [...] we bouze the Water Cold. / But as I’ve liv’d to come out again, / If the merry Old Roger I meet, / I’ll tout his Muns, and I’ll snable his Poll / As he Pikes along the Street.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1752		Smollett Faithful Narrative in Henley Works (1901) xii 184: The very cull who hath a warrant against me for snabbling his peeter and queer Joseph [F&H].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 76: Snable [sic], to plunder.

4. to kill in battle; usu. as snabbled adj.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Smabbled or snabbled, killed in battle.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 49: The Injins [...] got gloriously smabbled.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.

5. to have sexual intercourse with.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.