• (GA) IPA: /snɛəɹ/, /snɛɹ/

snare (plural snares)

1. A trap (especially one made from a loop of wire, string, or leather).
   • 1943, Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear, London: Heinemann, 1960, Book Three, Chapter One, pp. 196-197,

     He […] watched Beavis’s long-toothed mouth open and clap to like a rabbit snare.

   • 2013, Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North (novel), New York: Knopf, 2014, Chapter 18, p. 332,

     He felt a snare tightening around his throat; he gasped and threw a leg out of the bed, where it jerked for a second or two, thumping the steel frame, and died.

2. A mental or psychological trap.
   • circa 1591 William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act IV, Scene 2,

     If thou retire, the Dauphin, well appointed,

     Stands with the snares of war to tangle thee:

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Book of Exodus 23.33,

     […] if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, p. 193,

     […] and I had now liv’d two Years under these Uneasinesses, which indeed made my Life much less comfortable than it was before; as may well be imagin’d by any who know what it is to live in the constant Snare of the Fear of Man […]

   • 1865, Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters, Chapter ,

     “ […] riches are a great snare.”

   • 1978, Jan Morris, Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Part One, Chapter 9, p. 173,

     They were devious war aims, and Allenby’s campaign was fought with a maximum of snare and subterfuge.

3. (veterinary) A loop of cord used in obstetric cases, to hold or to pull a fetus from the mother animal.
4. (surgery) A similar looped instrument formerly used to remove tumours etc.
5. (music) A set of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin of a drum to create a rattling sound.
6. (music) A snare drum.

• French: collet
• German: Schlinge, Falle
• Italian: laccio, trappola, tagliola
• Portuguese: laço
• Russian: сило́к
• Spanish: lazo

• Italian: richiamo, insidia, trappola, tentazione
• Portuguese: armadilha
• Russian: лову́шка
• Spanish: asechanza

• Italian: laccio, armonico, timbro

• French: caisse claire
• Italian: rullante, tamburo
• Portuguese: caixa de guerra, caixa, tarol, tarola, taró, caixa clara, caixa chata

snare (snares, present participle snaring; past and past participle snared)

1. (transitive) To catch or hold, especially with a loop.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     Lest that too heavenly form […] snare them.

   • c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene i]:

     The mournful crocodile / With sorrow snares relenting passengers.

2. (transitive, figurative) To ensnare.

• Italian: prendere al lazo
• Portuguese: engodar, enlaçar

• ensnare
• snare drum
• snare-picture
• snarl

1. Surname

snare (plural snares)

1. (protein) Any of a class of proteins whose primary role is to mediate vesicle fusion.