snack n.1
1. (UK Und.) a share, orig. of booty; thus snacks, an equal division of booty.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | A Warning for House-Keepers 7: I cannot forbear laughing to see the old Tongue-pad come hopping after us for his Snack. | |
| Match in Newgate V iii: Thou wert ever a lazy Rascal [...] when we were getting a painful Living on the Kings High-way, wou’dst sleep the while, yet wake to share the snack. | |
| Proc. Old Bailey 31 Aug. n.p,: Mary Steers, was Tryed for picking the Pocket of one John Worsly [...] the Prisoner had confessed she had bit him, and gave King 10 s. for her snack, as she termed it. | |
| Proc. Old Bailey 30 Apr. 2/1: He said that they parted Snacks at Jakeman's House at Anny-seed Cleer, but Thomas Cox was not at the committing of the Robbery, yet made his Bargain to have a share, or to come in for a Snack, if the rest compassed their devilish Intentions. | |
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Snack c. share or part […] Tip me my Snack, or else I’ll Whiddle, c. Give me my share, or I’ll tell. | |
| ‘Mitred-Hog’ in Works (1707) II 136: The Cardinal [...] was resolved to put in for his snack. | |
| Proc. Old Bailey 12 July 5/1: [She] said that if she did it she would not stand to the 5 s. in the Pound but would have half snacks. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: snack Share or Part. […]. |
| The Tricks of the Town Laid Open (4 edn) 62: If any body has any Right to a Snack, ’tis this Gentleman, who saw me take it [i.e. a deliberately dropped guinea] up. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | The She-Gallant 23: Since your [sic] sharing the blessing, I hope my spouse and I’ll come in for snacks. | |
| ‘On Humbugging’ in Chalmers Eng. Poets XVII (1810) 428/1: So much for the lawyer and doctor – what lacks? – The parson, you think, should come in for his snacks. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Proc. Old Bailey 28 Oct. 125/2: Q. Any little snug informations in which you go snacks? - No. | |
| Dict. Sl. and Cant. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 161: Snacks — shares in an adventure, as a wager, a find, or treasure-trove. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Nick of the Woods III 84: I must know how the book stands, and how I’m to finger the snacks: for snacks is the word, or the bargain’s no go. | |
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 215: snacks An equal division of loot. |
2. (US Und.) a confederate.
| Butte (MT) Miner 8 June 1/3: P’raps you don’t call to mind the night when you and me snatched a fifteen-dollar sleeper when a drunk didn’t savy enough to pick up a split on a bet o’ thirty. [...] P’raps you and Jake Small ain’t snacks in ropin’ in snoozers? |
3. a snide remark [SE snack, a snap or bite, esp. of a dog, ult. Dan. snakke, to chatter].
| Sl. Dict. 298: Snack to quiz or chaff [...] As a substantive in this sense snack means an innuendo. | |
| Muvver Tongue 68: East End factory girls often accuse somebody of ‘throwing out snacks’ [...] a person doing this is casting innuendoes. The word that ‘snacks’ misrepresents is hard to identify; it involves ‘sneer’ and ‘snide’. |
In compounds
insults, abuse.
 | Forecastle Frolic 12 Dec. 45/1: Now, then, none of your nasty snacks, old Cafre-nose. | |
| Proc. Old Bailey 20 Nov. 68: I heard the solicitor[...] say he had a man as a witness who used the expression ‘I do not like such nasty snacks as that’. | |
| Proc. Old Bailey 5 Feb. 772: They had all been throwing nasty snacks at the prisoner when there was no cause. | |
| Proc. Old Bailey 28 May 288: He was chipping me, and throwing out nasty snacks about paying for beer. | |
| Ship’s Company [ebook] ‘Any more of your nasty snacks and I chuck it up altogether,’ said Mr. Chase, heatedly. |
In phrases
to divide up, to hand over, orig. a share of the loot; to take a share.
| Art of Wheedling 286: Every day he [a solicitor] took his rounds, [...] for the sick he made their Wills, and in them put in his own, never failing to go a snack with the surviving Relations. | |
| Juvenal VII 135: If one piece thou take, That must be cantled, and the Judge go snack. | |
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: […] to go Snacks, c. to go halves or share and share alike […]. | |
| London Spy XV 369: They do to go Snacks with those Infamous Beldams, who make it their Livelihood to Encourage and Shelter Mercenary Strumpets in their Wickedness. | |
| Last Speech Ebenezer Elliston in Works (1766) XI 6: The master and mistress, and the very tapster, go snacks. | |
| Select Trials at Old Bailey (1742) III 57: The Prosecutor gave me something, I thought it was a Six-pence, for my Trouble. The prisoner Smith [...] came to me, and swore he would go Snacks. | |
| Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 142: If they offered to protect or skreen them, as those Trading Justices always do, who go Snacks with their Clerks. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: […] To go Snacks. To go Halves, or Share and Share alike. |
| Roderick Random (1979) 93: None of them relied solely upon that interest, without a present to the s--t--y, with whom some of the c--mm--rs went snacks. | |
| Hist. of the Two Orphans IV 51: We will all go snacks in the winnings. | |
| Midas III i: He deals [...] Goes snacks / With quacks. | |
| Two Misers I i: He’ll be for going snacks. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 26 May-2 June n.p.: His petty fogging Informers [...] going Snacks with him, by pocketing two thirds of the Profit. | |
| ‘Brother Peter to Brother Tom’ Works (1794) II 98: They play’d into each other’s hands; As if the Carpenter and Death went snacks. | |
| Sporting Mag. May II 128/2: The purser [...] With the captain’s clerk who ’tis goes snacks. | |
| (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 162: You had a hand in the robbery, whether you went snacks in the profit or no. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Pierce Egan’s Life in London 6 Aug. 634/2: Did you not go snacks in the robbery ?—Snacks! what's that? (A laugh.) Come, were you not concerned in the robbery . | |
| (con. 1817–18) Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi 217: ‘You have won me a wager – so ought to go snacks in it;’ and he slipped five guineas into his hand. | |
| Proc. Old Bailey 14 Dec. 218: He would take his share and go snacks with them. | |
| Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 143: Chew on it, at any right, and if you have a mind to go snacks, why jist make an arrand for something or another to the Bay, to draw the wool over folkes eyes. | |
| ‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 22 Sept. 5/4: Muster Clarke [...] kindly letting us hav snacks in a oss box with a ould flea-bitten grey. | |
| Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi 301: Well done, Tommy, here’s a V.; go, buck it off on a horse-race next Sunday, and we’ll go snooks. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 May 3/3: ‘Nab him! nab him!’ quoth Mr R.; ‘why, such slang is shocking! (sensation in court.) Out of the jug! oh horrible! Going snacks or regulars! monstrous! Working the pig! (here the learned gentleman fainted). | |
| Wild Boys of London I 37/2: ‘Your motive, then, was to ensure a large reward?’ ‘As much as I could get, my lord, and no one to go snacks, ’ceptin my own pals.’. | |
| Low-Life Deeps 122: ‘I’m goin’ snacks with Poll,’ which she did, for Poll having devoured half the peas handed the saucer and leaden spoon to Bella. | |
| ‘Negro English’ in Anglia VII 272: To sorter go snacks — to go into partnership. | |
| ‘’Arry on the Sincerest Form of Flattery’ Punch 20 Sept. 144/2: Sech scoots scurryfunging around on the gay old galoot to go snacks / In the profits of other folks’ notions. | |
| Burnley Exp. 5 Mar. 2/5: Molly, there’s a few quid to be made out of this business [...] Will you help me, and go snacks? | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 33: Snack, part of the plunder, ‘to go snacks,’ to divide the plunder. | |
| [ | | Public School Slang 58: The procedure was known as [...] going snicks at Winchester (PSWB)]. |
half-shares in something.
| ‘A Faithful Catalogue of our most Eminent Ninnies’ Works of Rochester, Roscommon, Dorset (1720) 36: She mounts the Price, and goes half Snack herself, / And well knows how to cully such an Elf. | |
| Walford’s Antiquarian 252: Half-snags is a corrupted form of half snacks, i.e. half shares. [...] [F&H]. |