snavel
verbEtymology Probably related to snaffle, which may be from Dutch snavel.
1
To steal, to pickpocket.
- 1902, Barbara Baynton, Bush Studies, 2009, Sydney University Press, page 59, Then he missed his silk handkerchief. “Ghost!” he said, breathing heavily. “Mag′s snavelled it! […] ”
- Billy May said he made his first electric guitars after talking to an American named Paul Bigsley, who claimed to be the inventor of the Tremolo Lever, which idea, according to Billy, was “snavelled” by Fender and improved upon.1996, Lorene Ruymar, The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and Its Great Hawaiian Musicians, page 42:
2
Australia, New Zealand To snatch.
- Paul tried to snavel Dan′s chair from under him.
- 1915, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, page 472, This was in his constituency, and he believed the idea was to go straight through the reserve eventually — that if they snavelled this piece now they would snavel more of this playground a little later on, and completely spoil the reserve.
1 more example
- These primitive merchants lost the Booradeela Timber Reserve when it was snavelled up even before the Depression by the Kincomba Building Combine with a wheedled government contract.1986, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, page 26: