Sc. [? Related to SNACK v. Cf. also Norw. dial. snak greedy.]
A. adj. 1. Quick, alert, clever, smart.
1710. in Ruddiman, Gloss, Douglas’ Æneis s.v. Snak.
1719. Ramsay, First Answ. Hamilton, x. Europe had nane mair snack and snell At verse or prose.
1789. Ross, Helenore (ed. 3), 16. By this time Lindy is right well shot out,… And snack and plump.
1791. J. Learmont, Poems, 280. Weel I ken ye’re snack.
1808. Jamieson, s.v., Be snack, be quick, do not lose time.
2. Snappish, peevish; greedy.
1883. L. B. Walford, in Good Words, 651/2. It is … the being grasping, or what Scotch people would call ‘snack,’ over every trifle. Ibid. (1894), in Longm. Mag., May, 9. You needn’t be so snack; I can’t stop to pick my words when I’m worried like this.
B. adv. Quickly, sharply, smartly.
1739. A. Nicol, Nature without Art, 60. She answered me chastly and snack Why do you impose on me so?
1801. Beattie, Poems, 22 (E.D.D.). Trump-about gade on as snack As we’d been lairds.
1828. in Buchan, Ball. N. Scotl., II. 260. The lassie … ran to the door fu’ snack.
