Also snap dragon, snap-dragon. [f. SNAP v. + DRAGON1.]
1. A popular name for one or other of the plants belonging to the genus Antirrhinum, esp. A. majus, a hardy plant bearing showy flowers, freq. grown in gardens.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 96. Roses of all sorts…. Snap [pr. snag] dragons.
1597. Gerarde, Herball, II. clv. 438. The flowers [are] … fashioned like a frogs mouth, or rather a dragons mouth; from whence the women haue taken the name Snapdragon.
1629. Parkinson, Parad., 269. There is some diuersity in the Snapdragons, some being of a larger, and others of a lesser stature and bignesse.
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying-Ins., 93. Those flowers, that … shut hard and close at the top or lips,… as Toads-flax, Snap-dragon, Fox-gloves.
1689. N. Tate, trans. Cowley’s Hist. Plants, IV. 85. Antirrhinon, more modest, takes the stile Of Lions-Mouth, sometimes of Calfsnout vile; By us Snap-Dragon call’d.
1785. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., iv. (1794), 45. Having the two lips not usually open, or gaping, but closed and joined, as you may see in the snap-dragon.
1847. G. P. R. James, Convict, x. Those old walls, time-worn, and lichen-covered, and loaded with snapdragon.
1882. Garden, 26 Aug., 183/2. Truly the Snap-dragon is one of our finest open-air flowers.
attrib. and Comb. 1871. Kingsley, At Last, xii. This raft supports the little scape of yellow snapdragon-like flowers.
1872. Tyndall, Fragm. Sci. (ed. 4), 412. In the path of the bean is interposed this snapdragon light. Alcohol and water are here mixed with a quantity of common salt.
b. With distinguishing terms.
1597. Gerarde, Herball, II. clv. 438. The purple Snapdragon hath great and brittle stalks.
1629. Parkinson, Parad., 269. Variable Snapdragon…. Yellow Snapdragon.
c. 1710. Petiver, Cat. Ray’s Eng. Herbal, xxxv. Small Snap-Dragon.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Antirrhinum, The Broad-leav’d Snap-dragon. Ibid., The strip’d Snap-dragon.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), III. 549. Ivy-leaved Snapdragon…. Round-leaved Snapdragon. Ibid., 550. Creeping Snapdragon [etc.].
1856. Delamer, Fl. Garden (1860), 74. Garden Snapdragon.
c. Applied to various other plants having personate flowers (see quots.).
Also dial. the foxglove, the columbine, and the common fumitory (Eng. Dial. Dict.).
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v. Linaria, The species of toad flax … called by authors the lesser snapdragon…. Stone snapdragon.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 317. Snap Dragon of America, Ruellia.
1859. Miss Pratt, Flowering Pl., IV. 125. Lesser Snapdragon.
1864. Grisebach, Flora Brit. W. Ind., 287/2. Snapdragon: Ruellia tuberosa.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1067/2. Snapdragon,… Silene Antirrhina.
2. A figure or representation of a dragon, esp. one so constructed as to open and shut the mouth, used in mayoral or civic shows or processions. Obs. exc. Hist.
1611. Florio, Mandúco, a disguised or vglie picture to make children afraid, as wee say, a snap-dragon, a turke, a bug-beare.
1694. Echard, Plautus, 234. Antick Figures with wide Mouths, like our Snap-dragons for Mayor’s Shows.
1726. in Hist. Norfolk (1829), II. 1202. Great preparations are making in this city for the guild on Tuesday next, and the old snap dragon being dead, a young one … will make his first public appearance.
† 3. ? Burnt brandy. (Cf. next.) Obs.
1676. Poor Robin’s Intell., 22–29 Aug., 1/1. An old Crony … with whom he drank Snapdraggon so plentifully [etc.].
1682. Dryden & Lee, Dk. Guise, I. i. I swallow oaths as easy as snap-dragon.
4. A game or amusement (usually played at Christmas) consisting of snatching raisins out of a bowl or dish of burning brandy or other spirit and eating them whilst alight; a bowl or quantity of the liquor, etc., used in this game. (Cf. FLAP-DRAGON 1.)
1704. Swift, T. Tub, xi. He bore a strange kind of appetite to snap-dragon, and to the livid snuffs of a burning candle.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 85, ¶ 2. We got into a dark Corner with a Porringer of Brandy, and threw Raisins into it, then set it on Fire…. This fantastical Mirth was called Snap-Draggon.
1792. Wolcot (P. Pindar), More Money, Wks. 1812, II. 505. He hates snap-dragon; ’tis a game of danger.
1835. Sir J. Ross, Narr. 2nd Voy., xvii. 273. The exhibition of snap-dragon … produced also great surprise.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B., II. xi. 275. The recollections of last night’s snap-dragon and blindman’s-buff.
1894. Times, 12 Jan., 9/2. An accident arising from an explosion of methylated spirits used in a snapdragon.
fig. 1818. Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, v. (1870), 141. His Muse is, in fact, a giddy wanton flirt, who spends her time in playing at snap-dragon.
5. techn. (See quots.)
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 11. A snap-dragon … is a sort of screw nippers … placed in an ordinary vice, and opening horizontally to hold a horn or other scale while being flat filed.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2229/1. Snap-dragon.… A kind of tongs used by glass-blowers to hold their hot hollow ware.
