Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to grab, to steal.

1895		DN I 399: Snag, to steal.
1902		Sun (NY) 12 Oct. 18/2: I slewed downtown and snagged a badge from a duck I knew wasn’t going out that day .
1913		Day Book (Chicago) 25 Sept. 12/1: This still leaves the writer-authors free to snag the cash [...] by signing their names to ‘expert’ articles written by a reporter.
1927		W.R. Morse ‘Stanford Expressions’ in AS II:6 278: snag a pick up—get a free ride.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Lillian’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 285: The blond doll’s beef over Lillian snagging her Peke.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 59: Important visitors from every state in the union dropped around to snag a honeymoon between trains.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 14: Ambitious employees try to snag others’ jobs.
1965		K. Marlowe Mr Madam (1967) 53: Whenever you snagged a date for a meal, all the queens in the Square were aware.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 6: I [...] snagged a book from the wall unit.
1989		(con. 1960) P. Theroux My Secret Hist. (1990) 175: There’s a package store. I’m going to snag some beer.
1999		Guardian G2 24 June 17: The cast of Seinfeld snagged $600,000 each per episode.
2009		J. Joso Soothing Music for Stray Cats 99: Told the others I’d snag some fags off of you.
2012		M.E. Fitch ‘Monster’ in ThugLit Oct. [ebook] [I] snag the meds and sell them on the street.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] [A]fter snagging a shake from Wendy’s [etc].
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] I was [...] snaggin’ the occasional Trader Joe’s Oreo.

2. to catch or arrest.

1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Aug. 17/1: The advice I tender him [...] is this: When ‘upending sleepers’ for an honest living, always pass the teetotallers (I know they’re scarce), and ‘run the rule’ over beer-chewers only. Otherwise you may get ‘snagged’ again.
1927		‘Max Brand’ Pleasant Jim 23: Tell me who the gents will be that might try to snag me?
1949		A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 59: A lot of other people like us will get snagged all on account of him.
1960		Mad mag. Jan. 49: The tip of a butt he had snagged in his choppers.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 73–4: ‘Cut out, fellas!’ I shouted, and everybody was on his own. Some of the guys lost their sugar, and packs of Kool-ade were strewn all over the store, but nobody got snagged.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 208: You’re doing such a nice job out there, snagging the perps and whatnot.
1997		A. Highcrest At Home on the Stroll 106: A young female officer [...] snagged as many unlucky customers as she and her two male back-up officers could process.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 121: [A] UVF hitman got snagged by forensics and went down for life.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 166: She’d been snagged in a heroin deal [...] and had agreed to testify against her former boyfriend.

3. to win.

1907		Sun(NY) 22 Sept. n.p.: I snagged out a little easy change — oh, thousand or two on a horse.
1950		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 14 Jan. 18/1: She just snagged a waxing contract.
1999		Guardian Guide 17–23 July 2: Star Edward Norton (who snagged an Oscar nomination).

4. (N.Z.) to hunt for bargains, as a means for poor people to survive; thus snagging n.

1992		R. Park Fence Around the Cuckoo 115: Small, light, easily boiled, sugarbags were a godsend for ‘snagging’. Snagging was a Depression word for bargain-hunting.
1998		DNZE 749/3: snag v. Obs. A 1930s ‘Depression’ use, to search for bargains: often as snagger, one who thus searches; and as snagging, vbl. n. searching for bargains.

5. (US tramp, also snag onto) to sodomize.

1927		in ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 174: Snag.–To commit pederasty.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 818: snag – To commit pederasty.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 89: anal intercourse [...] snag (rare, ‘Snag onto any cute Greeks while you were stationed around the Cobaltic?’).

6. (also snag off) to woo, to wed, to seduce; to attract in a non-sexual context.

1946		R.L. Bellem ‘Latin Blood’ in Speed Detective Aug. 🌐 Lanza’s the guy you’ve got to depend on to snag the Latin trade.
1953		F. Brown Madball (2019) 8: He’d inherit Charliers girl too [...] Unless someone had snagged off Maybelle already.
1961		J. Kirkwood There Must Be a Pony! 38: This millionaire husband she’s snagged.
1967		(con. 1950s) McAleer & Dickson Unit Pride (1981) 273: Y’all gonna show us how y’all snagged a coupla bull dykes.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 200: Snag Take someone else’s date away.
1990		E. George ‘The Evidence Exposed’ Evidence Exposed (1999) 9: I wonder who snagged him?
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 57: She really wanted a baby by John and here comes Tom [...] She snagged him.
1999		Guardian Guide 22–28 May 12: He brings in his gold-digging friend Petruchio to try and snag her.
2012		M. Lacher On the Bro’d 32: [S]ome dud [...] said they could snag some bangable ass.

7. (US black) to have sexual intercourse (with).

1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 300: Come on, Daddio [...] Rock it for me, snag me good.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 255: snag Engage in sexual intercourse.

8. (gang) to attack an individual without warning.

1959		E. De Roo Young Wolves 129: And to think I was gonna snag ya.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 29: This turf ain’t safe for a coolie. Ain’t you found that out yet. Why, you might get snagged.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 29: They never made a move to snag me.

9. to destroy.

1958

Mad mag. May–June 20: Had I inked it, I would snag the bit.

10. (US campus) to ridicule.

1981

Eble Campus Sl. Fall 6: snag – to make a joke at the expense of another.