snappy
adj/ˈsnæpi/
Etymology From snap + -y.
1
Informal Rapid and without delay.
- a snappy response
- Make it snappy!
2
Informal Irritable.
- You're snappy this morning; did you not sleep well?
- She, Ellen, was sorry she had spoken so sharp-like to the girl, but after all it wasn’t wonderful that she had been snappy.1913, Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger:
3
Informal Tidy; well-dressed; sharp.
- Here he is, looking snappy in his brand-new suit.
- The niftiest, snappiest slacks you ever saw!1933, Stella Blum, Everyday Fashion of the Thirties as pictured in Sears Catalogs, published 1986, page 56:
4
Chilly, brisk, sharp.
- snappy weather; snappy pace; snappy rejoinder
- The day was cool and snappy for August, and the Rise all green with a lavish nature. Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:[…].1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
5
Tending to snap or bite.
- a snappy dog
- These spring-loaded seats are a bit harder and very snappy when you get off them.2023 April 19, Pip Dunn, “Jack of all trades... and master of most”, in RAIL, number 981, page 56:
6
Clever, catchy.
- a snappy motto
- I should warn the busy reader, however, that the after-dinner mint of Felix Finch is merely the aperitif of my own peripatetic tribulations. The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish, if you will. Now that is a snappy title.2004, David Mitchell, “The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish”, in Cloud Atlas, →ISBN, pages 146-147:
- Derived terms
- look snappy, make it snappy, snappily, snappiness, snappy gum, snazzy