Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a caustic remark.

[1857		J.G. Holland Bay Path xiv: You’d ’a said twenty lashes, and she’d got ’em, and Mr. Moxon would ’a said twenty Amens on the end on ’em for a snapper ].
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 19 Aug. [synd. col.] Jummy [...] Cannon’s snapper to the celeb who said ‘It must be nice being a newspaper man, you meet so many interesting people’ . . . To which James replied ‘It must be nicer being a celebrity – you meet so many interesting newspaper-men!’.
1952		W. Winchell ‘On Broadway’ 5 Sept. [synd. col.] ‘No,’ was the snapper, ‘I bought it myself.’.
1960		(con. WWII) G. Sire Deathmakers 197: He gave you quite a snapper.
1972		R. Barrett Lovomaniacs (1973) 351: ‘Yeah,’ was the snapper I finally came back with.

2. the point of a story or joke.

1897		‘Mark Twain’ How to Tell a Story 9: I used to tell a negro ghost story that had a pause in front of the snapper on the end.
1912		C. Mathewson Pitching in a Pinch 81: But the real snapper came later when the Cincinnati club was whipsawed on the information.
1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 212: Here comes the snapper.

3. a braggart, an arrogant individual.

1877		‘Dicky Short’s History’ in Laughing Songster 57: She snubb’d him, and cuff’d him, for she was a snapper, / And said as right how, that she wasn’t to be had / For she lov’d a man more handsome and bigger.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 31 July 5/3: How is the Wallaroo schnapper [sic] getting on? You know you are only sweet sixteen .

4. (US) a sharp-witted person.

1929

H.C. Witwer Yes Man’s Land 13: This cute little snapper knew her parsnips.

5. (gay) the foreskin.

1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 42: snapper (n.): The foreskin.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

6. (Aus.) a shark.

1960		J. Iggulden Storms of Summer 137: Big snapper. I tell you, eh? [...] Two hundred pound of snapper would have been a good catch.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 81: They ended up [...] feeding the snappers at the bottom of Port Phillip Bay.