upsnatch

upsnatch

English

Etymology

From up- +‎ snatch.

Verb

upsnatch (third-person singular simple present upsnatches, present participle upsnatching, simple past and past participle upsnatched)

1. (transitive) To seize or snatch up.
   • 1832, Blackwood's magazine: Volume 31:

     With pity struck, with horror for my deed, The babe upsnatch'd away I bore with speed ; And, knowing Zion should be captive led, Far to these mountains of the East I sped.

   • 1855, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, The poets and poetry of America:

     With Zephyr from his palace in the west, thou dost upsnatch the Twins from cradled rest, And strain them to thy breast, [...]

   • 1907, Martha Foote Crow, Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

     To her the wood-ivy, like a spirit, hovers round the old hawthorn, and everywhere "mystic Presences of power" "upsnatch" her "to the timeless, then return" her "to the Hour."