• IPA: /snæk/

From Middle Dutch snacken.

snack (plural snacks)

1. A light meal.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:meal

2. An item of food eaten between meals.
3. (slang) A very sexy and attractive person.

• French: casse-croûte or casse-croute, hors-d'œuvre, goûter, encas
• German: Imbiss, Happen, Snack, Jause (Austria)
• Italian: spuntino
• Portuguese: lanche, comidinha, petisco
• Russian: заку́ска
• Spanish: tentempié, (formal usage) refrigerio, (figurative usage - also : bocadillo), aperitivo, bocado, (Mexico) botana, (Southern Spain) piquislabis, (Spain standard usage) piscolabis, (Guatemala) refacción, (Venezuela) bala fría

• French: casse-croûte or casse-croute, grignotage
• German: Zwischenmahlzeit
• Italian: merendina
• Portuguese: lanche
• Russian: заку́ска
• Spanish: tentempié, (formal usage) refrigerio, (figurative usage - also : bocadillo) bocado, (Mexico) botana, (Southern Spain) piquislabis, (Spain standard usage) piscolabis, (Guatemala) refacción, (Venezuela) bala fría

snack (snacks, present participle snacking; simple past and past participle snacked)

1. To eat a light meal.
2. To eat between meals.

   Coordinate term: graze

• French: grignoter
• German: jausnen (Austria)
• Russian: заку́сывать

• French: grignoter
• Russian: переку́сывать
• Spanish: picar, mecatear (Colombia), merendar (in the afternoon)

See snatch (transitive verb). Ultimately of the same origin as the word under Etymology 1, but perhaps through a different source.

snack (plural snacks)

1. (obsolete) A share; a part or portion.
   • 1735 January 13 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1734), [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London: […] J[ohn] Wright for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC ↗, page 4 ↗, lines 65–66:

     All my demurrs but double his attacks; / At laſt he vvhiſpers, "Do; and vve go ſnacks."

   • 1894 July 5, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Hammerpond Park Burglary”, in The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents, London: Methuen & Co. […], published 1895, →OCLC ↗, pages 216–217 ↗:

     "Have you exhibited very much?" said Young Person in the bar-parlour of the "Coach and Horses," where Mr Watkins was skilfully accumulating local information on the night of his arrival. / "Very little," said Mr Watkins, "just a snack here and there."

snack (snacks, present participle snacking; simple past and past participle snacked)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To snatch.
2. (obsolete, transitive) To bite.
3. (obsolete, transitive) To share.