Other forms: snares
A snare is a trap of wire or rope for catching animals. Set a snare, caught in a snare, check the snares.
It catches by tightening as the animal pulls, which is why free-running ones are legal in some countries and self-locking ones are not. Figuratively a snare is any trap laid for somebody. The snare drum is named for the wires stretched across it.
1nounsnareA trap of wire or rope for catching animals.
“The hunter set a snare at the edge of the woods to catch rabbits.”
snare is a trap.
Old English sneare means a noose, from a Germanic root meaning to twist or bind.
Proto-Germanic
*snarhǭ — a sling; loop; noose
Proto-West Germanic
*snarhā
Old English
sneare — snare, noose
Middle English
snare
English, today
snare
From Middle English snare, from Old English sneare (“snare, noose”), from Proto-West Germanic snarhā, from Proto-Germanic snarhǭ (“a sling; loop; noose”). Cognate with Old Norse snara. Also related to German Schnur and Dutch snaar, snoer.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA