Now dial. and rare. [Of obscure origin: cf. SKEG sb.2, SCAD2.] A sloe.

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1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, VI. xlvi. 719. The wilde Plummes are the least of al, and are called Slose, Bullies, and Snagges.

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1611.  Cotgr., Prunelle, a Sloe, or Snag.

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1825.  Jennings, Obs. Dial. West Eng., 70. Snags, small sloes.

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1901.  M. E. Francis (Mrs. Francis Blundell), in Longm. Mag., Feb., 363. Sloe wine!… ye’d scarce think ’twere made o’ nought but the snags what grows in the hedges.

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  attrib.  1598.  Florio, Spino, a sloe tree, a black-thorne, a snag tree.

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1617.  Holyoke, Dict. Etymol., Spinus,… a blacke thorne, the snagge tree.

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1893.  Wiltshire Gloss., 149. Snag-bush, Prunus spinosa, the Sloe.

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