[f. SNATCH v.]
1. One who or that which snatches; a thief, a robber. (Also with at or away.)
1575. Mirr. Mag., Tresilian, xi. So catchers and snatchers toyle both night and daye, Not needy but greedy, still prolling for their praye.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 29. I am kind Æneas, from foes thee snatcher of housgods.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., I. ii. 143. We do not meane the coursing snatchers onely, But feare the maine intendment of the Scot.
1611. Cotgr., Grippeur, a griper; catcher, snatcher.
1648. Hexham, II. Een Rucker, a Puller, or a Snatcher away.
1736. Ainsworth, Eng.-Lat. Dict., I. A snatcher at, Captator.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, IV. iv. Full oft the Tynedale snatchers knock At his lone gate.
1866. Morn. Star, 21 Aug., 3/2. There having lately been a great many ‘snatchers’ in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel.
1868. Morris, Earthly Par. (1870), I. II. 461. The snatchers … Lurked round the gates or less well-guarded folds.
b. A body-snatcher. (See BODY sb. 30.)
1831. Ann. Reg., Law Cases, etc. 321/1. A person in the room … told him that he must mind what he was at, as they were snatchers.
1884. A. Griffiths, Chron. Newgate, II. vii. 331. The snatchers brought a hamper which contained a body in a sack.
c. One who takes fish by ‘snatching.’
1878. Standard, 21 Oct., 5/1 (Davies). Some ‘snatchers’ will use two, three, or even four triangles.
2. pl. ‘A book-name for the Raptores’ (Cassell’s Encycl. Dict., 1887).
