[f. SNAG sb.1 + -Y.]
1. Having snags or sharp protuberances; jagged, knotty; snag-like.
1581. Studley, Seneca, Medea, 134. Cause yee the snaggy wheele to pawse that rentes the carkas bound.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vii. 10. His stalking steps are stayde Vpon a snaggy Oke.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., II. (1632), 62. That such her [Envie’s] power: a snaggy staffe then tooke Wreathed with thornes.
1888. L. Hearn, in Harper’s Mag., April, 735/1. A multitude of blackened snaggy shapes protruding above the water.
1895. Jane Barlow, Strangers at Lisconnel, ix. 212. His snaggy stick lay at a little distance, a black line on the snow.
fig. 1857. Fraser’s Mag., LVI. 358/1. We do not think that your genuine snaggy fellow belongs to any class in particular.
2. Of teeth: Suggestive of snags.
1703. Motteux, Quix. (1733), III. 210. Her Teeth … seem’d to be thin and snaggy.
3. Abounding in, full of, snags.
1864. Hosmer, Color-Guard, xii. 163. We passed into snaggy lakes at last.
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 22 Oct., 2/1. The river is … a turbulent, snaggy stream to navigate.
