Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A hurried or light meal.
  • noun Food eaten between meals.
  • intransitive verb To eat a hurried or light meal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A snatch or snap, as of a dog's jaws.
  • noun A bite, as of a dog.
  • noun A portion of food that can be eaten hastily; a slight, hasty repast; a bite; a luncheon.
  • noun A portion or share of food or of other things: used especially in the phrase to go snacks—that is, to share; divide and distribute in shares.
  • To snatch.
  • To bite.
  • To go snacks in: share.
  • To go snacks or shares; share.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A share; a part or portion; -- obsolete, except in the colloquial phrase, to go snacks, i. e., to share.
  • noun colloq. A slight, hasty repast.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A share; a part or portion.
  • noun A light meal.
  • noun An item of food eaten between meals.
  • verb to eat a light meal
  • verb to eat between meals

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a light informal meal
  • verb eat a snack; eat lightly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English snak, variant of snacche, trap, bite, from snacchen, to snap; see snatch.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See snatch (transitive verb).

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Examples

Comments

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  • "8. A portion or share of food or of other things: used especially in the phrase to go snacks—that is, to share; divide and distribute in shares." -- Cent. Dict.

    June 14, 2011

  • "We went down stairs, and conferred together on our expectations, when I understood that each of them had been recommended to one or other of the commissioners, and each of them promised the first vacancy that should fall; but that none of them relied solely upon that interest, without a present to the secretary, with whom some of the commissioners went snacks."

    - Smollett, Roderick Random, 1748

    Thank you Cent. Dict. and Ruzuzu for helping me with this one!

    May 21, 2014