Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) handcuffs [they snap onto the wrist].

1895		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 390: I managed at length to get the ‘snaps’ on my prisoner.
1901		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life II 353: I [...] clapped the ‘snaps’ on him.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. (orig. US black teen) money [the ‘snapping’ of a dollar bill].

1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 48: snaps Paper money.
1988		NWA ‘Straight Outta Compton’ 🎵 I’ma make my snaps / If not from the records, from jackin at craps.
1997–2000		Da Bomb 🌐 26: Snaps: Money.
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 21: More words seem to be invented each week, faster than any Webster’s could keep track: [...] ‘snaps’, ‘stack’, ‘chips’, ‘gravy’. It is the fecund vocabulary of desire.

3. (orig. US black teen) praise, congratulations; occas. ironic [a congratulatory snap of the fingers].

2008		Urban Dict. 🌐 snaps praise for a job well done snaps for reeling in your man! [...] snaps used as an exclamation of derision or sarcasm after an insult meant to hurt ‘You’re a fucking idiot!’ ‘Oh, well snaps for you.’.
2014		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 Fall 6: SNAPS — approval: X: ‘I just passed my first exam!’ Y: ‘Snaps to that’.