Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US, also easy snap) anything easy, a simple task or achievement.

1877		H. Ruede Sod-House Days 120: It is no snap, for the straw rolls out fast enough to keep them very busy [DA].
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 10/4: We don’t want no men with tails here. We can get the exclusive right of using the second-hand tails of Fargeon and Miss Braddon for a snap, and they go down as well with our readers as we care about.
1890		Nebraska State Jrnl (Lincoln, NE) 23 Mar. 6/1: [headline] Not Altogether a Snap / Annoyances That make the Life of the Honest Tradesman a Burden.
1894		Mirror of Life 24 Feb. 16: [pic. caption] ‘This is a soft snap, old man’.
1907		J. London Road 133: Now it is no snap to strike a strange town, broke, at midnight, in cold weather, and find a place to sleep.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 July 2nd sect. 9/2: They Say [...] That the champion revolver shot at Sanga is to be challeoged. That he won’t have such a soft snap as of aforetime.
1912		S. Ford Trying Out Torchy 54: ‘But ain’t the work hard? Strikes me youVe got quite a snap here!’.
1929		S. Ornitz Haunch Paunch and Jowl 62: City College was a shock after the easy snap I had at school.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 460: They think being a noncom is a snap where you get all the breaks.
1955		E. Hunter Blackboard Jungle 157: He had taken a good many exams [...] and this one had definitely not been a snap.
1961		Mad mag. Sept. 17: The candy store at 12th and Main will be a snap tonight.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 98: When they got back to the room Al started telling her what a snap it [i.e. a robbery] was.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 39: The reading questions had been a snap.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 41: Two more judges. Just a snap.
1995		G. Cuomo Couple of Cops 289: At the same time, they [other policemen] couldn’t resist joshing me about what a snap their [crime] scene was, what we call a ‘grounder,’ an easy hopper to the short stop.
1996		H. Roth From Bondage 86: It would have been a snap had he been someone else.

2. (US) an event, a circumstance; a trick.

1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 2 Sept. 7/1: ‘Why, these women are working the Coney Island hotels for all they are worth [...] they are working a good snap and they do not want to give it away’.
1887		Oakland Trib. (CA) 17 Sept. 10/2: ‘He’d be a-thinkin’ ho he could get a feller out of some snap’.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 228: Say, that was a queer snap.
1910		D. Runyon ‘Art of High Grading’ in Pittsburgh Post-Gaz. (PA) Sun. Mag. 2 Jan. 8/1: [They] walked by them stark naked with the stuff wadded into their arm pits. One of the bunch stumbled one day, and gave that snap away.

3. (US) a personal possession, e.g. a lover, a political office.

1894

S. Crane in N.Y. Press Nov. in Stallman (1966) 105: If this [i.e. a surprise landslide defeat] don’t prove to politicians that a man has got to be always on the level if he wants to hold his snap.

4. (US campus) an easy course; also attrib.

1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 22: snap n. (and a.) 1. A course requiring little or no study.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 61: snap, n. 1. An easy task in any subject. 2. A course requiring little or no study.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 287: He had three classes in literature, one in music—partly because it was a ‘snap’ and partly because he really wanted to know more about music.
1927		M.C. McPhee ‘College Sl.’ in AS III:2 133: An easy course, formerly called ‘a snap’ is also described as ‘a pipe’.
1932		J.A. Shidler ‘More Stanford Expressions’ in AS VII:6 437: Some courses are easier than others; the easier ones are known as ‘pipes,’ ‘cinches,’ ‘set-ups,’ ‘rides,’ and ‘snaps’.
1958		M.A. Crane ‘Misc.’ in AS XXXIII:3 226: A ‘Mickey Mouse course’ means a snap course, or what Princeton undergraduates in my day called a gut course.
1960		I. Freeman Out of the Burning (1961) 213: My courses were no snap—physics, chemistry, biology.
1963		Dundes & Schonhorn ‘Kansas University Sl.: A New Generation’ in AS XXXVIII:3 167: An easy college course: snap.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS.
2017		D. Jenkins Stick a Fork In Me 77: The only snap course was P.E.

5. (US campus) a lenient instructor.

1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 61: snap, n. An instructor who gives an easy course.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 22: snap n. […] 2. An instructor who gives very easy courses.

6. (US campus) an advantage; a foregone conclusion.

1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 61: snap, n. 5. Advantage. 6. A foregone conclusion.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 57: It’s me for you, an’ that’s all there is to it, so you might as well make up your mind [...] Why, it’s a snap.

7. in drugs uses [the energy generated].