snapper

See also: snäpper

English

Etymology 1

snap +‎ -er.

Alternative forms

schnapper (fish)

Pronunciation

(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsnæpɚ/
Audio (AU) (file)
Rhymes: -æpə(ɹ)

Noun

snapper (plural snappers)

One who, or that which, snaps.
a snapper-up of bargains
the snapper of a whip
Any of approximately 100 different species of fish.
1. (Australia, New Zealand) The fish Chrysophrys auratus, especially an adult of the species.
  - 1971, Harry Robertson, “Ballina Whalers” (lyrics):
    Heigh-ho ye trawler men come on, forget the snapper and the prawn,
    And it’s out of Ballina we’ll sail, a-fishing for the Humpback whale.
2. (US) Any of the family Lutjanidae of percoid fishes, especially the red snapper.
(Ireland, slang) A (human) baby.
- 1990, Roddy Doyle, The Snapper.
(American football) The player who snaps the ball to start the play.
(US) Small, paper-wrapped item containing a minute quantity of explosive composition coated on small bits of sand, which explodes noisily when thrown onto a hard surface.
(slang) One who takes snaps; a photographer.
(US, informal) The snapping turtle.
The green woodpecker, or yaffle (Picus viridis).
A snap beetle (family Elateridae).
(historical) A telegraphic device with a flexible metal tongue for producing clicks like those of the sounder.
(obsolete) A percussive musical instrument consisting of a pair of items to be snapped together; castanet or bones.
(US, colloquial) A string bean.
(slang) The vulva.
- 2004, Mary B. Morrison, Never Again Once More
  At thirty-nine, her snapper was snapping at practically every man that appeared halfway decent and had a pulse.
- 2010, Phil Torcivia, Nice Meeting You:
  Then, get this, when we finished, she grabbed what looked like one of her husband's T-shirts, wiped her snapper, threw it into the back, […]
(slang, entertainment) A punchline.
- 1976, Larry Wilde, How the Great Comedy Writers Create Laughter (page 101)
  I don't want a pause before the snapper.
- 2011, Judy Kerr, Acting is Everything
  The end should always be a “snapper.” The punchline of a monologue is extremely important. Find a good one.
- 2018, Michelle Ann Abate, Funny Girls (page 55)
  In fact, he began the comic by coming up with the final panel, which he called “the snapper,” and worked backward.

Hyponyms

(Chrysophrys auratus): cockney (very young), red bream (adolescent), squire (pre-adult)[1][2]

Derived terms

black snapper (Sistrurus catenatus)
pink snapper (Chrysophrys auratus)
red snapper
whippersnapper

Etymology 2

From Middle English snaperen, likely formed with the frequentative suffix -eren (Modern English -er). For the stem compare Norwegian Nynorsk snåva (“to stumble”), Swedish snäva (“to stumble”), obsolete German schnappen (“to totter, to limp”), Middle High German snaben, Middle Low German snaven (“to stumble”).

Verb

snapper (third-person singular simple present snappers, present participle snappering, simple past and past participle snappered) (obsolete outside Northern England and Scotland)

To stumble, to trip.
(figuratively) To fall into error; to make a mistake, and especially to stumble morally.
- c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, OCLC 8728872, lines 141–143, page 65:
  A curate in specyall
  To snappar and to fall
  Into this opyn cryme

Noun

snapper (plural snappers) (chiefly Scotland)

A stumble, a trip.
An error, a blunder, especially a moral slip-up.

References

1990, Richard Allan, Australian Fish and How to Catch Them, →ISBN, page 309.
“Snapper”, entry in 1966, An Encyclopedia of New Zealand.

Anagrams

Nappers, nappers, parsnep, presnap

[1] 1990, Richard Allan, Australian Fish and How to Catch Them, →ISBN, page 309.

[2] “Snapper”, entry in 1966, An Encyclopedia of New Zealand.