[f. SNAG sb.1]
1. trans. a. In passive: To be caught, pierced or damaged by a snag. Chiefly U.S., and esp. of river-steamers.
(a) 1807. P. Gass, Jrnl., 229. One of our best horses got snagged to day, and was left here.
(b) 1839. De Quincey, Milton v. Southey, Wks. 1862, XI. 196. One does not altogether like being snagged by the Mississippi.
1850. Lyell, 2nd Visit U.S., II. 267. I afterwards learnt, that in the course of her voyage she was snagged.
1864. Daily Telegr., 6 April, 5/2. It is no light matter to be ‘snagged’ on a dark night in Virginia.
(c) 1891. C. Roberts, Adrift Amer., 211. Feeling no pull I started to haul my line in, but found I was snagged.
b. fig. To occupy or block as with a snag.
1863. W. Phillips, Speeches, iii. 38. A great mind, anchored in error, might snag the slow-moving current of society.
2. To cut roughly, or so as to leave snags.
1811. Willan, in Archaeologia, XVII. 158. Snag, v. to hew, or cut rudely with an axe, &c.
1812. J. J. Henry, Camp. agst. Quebec, 24. Blazing the trees and snagging the bushes with our tomahawks.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVIII. 216/2. Whether the branches … should be cut close to the stem at once,… or whether they should first be snagged.
b. To tear on or by a sharp projection.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., II. 258. I have snagged my gown.
1897. E. N. Buxton, in 19th Cent., Feb., 242. My knickerbockers and stockings were ‘snagged’ to pieces by these hidden stumbling-blocks.
3. To clear (a river, etc.) from snags.
1882. Law Rep. 9 App. Cases 429. I got much useful information from him when snagging the river.
1889. N. Y. Times, 21 July, 1/7 (Cent.). Both of these parties, composed of about fifty men, are engaged in ‘snagging’ the waterways, which will be dredged out to form the [Nicaragua] canal.
Hence Snagging vbl. sb.2
1880. ‘Mark Twain,’ Tramp Abroad, x. 95. He … had gone to bed, with his head filled with impending snaggings, and explosions, and conflagrations, and sudden death.
