snack

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small amount of food eaten between meals.

   I had an apple as a snack in the afternoon.

2. 2
   verb

   To eat small amounts of food between meals.

   She likes to snack on nuts while she works.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Snack originally meant “a snap” or “a bite” and came from Middle Dutch snac or snack, related to snacken “to bite,” a variant of snappen. Its food senses appeared in the late 17th century, and the meaning “a light incidental meal” followed in the mid-18th century.

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

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary