DCHP-2

snag DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• 1 n.

  a large branch or tree trunk, usually submerged, having one end embedded in the bottom of a river or lake.

  See also: deadhead  

  • 1784-1812  (1916)  The Snag is . . . always under water, so that it is not seen, and cannot be avoided; several boats have been sunk by them. . . .
  • 1887  (1888)  The real risk is from snags, which are very numerous, and in spite of the utmost care cannot always be guarded against. . . .
  • 1928  Many a snag was bumped by boat or motor, but never hard enough to do any harm.
  • 1965  The process of getting the logs off the snags and sandbars and of marshalling them into rafts involved the now almost forgotten art of "birling," wherein the rivermen, pikes or peavies in hand, worked logs out of shallows by spinning them under their sure feet.

• 2a n.

  the stump of a cut or fallen tree.

  • 1920  At the rink the enthusiastic country boy enjoyed the vast expanse of ice with no snags to interrupt his skating.
  • 1963  . . . he was eight feet from his horse, yet his chaps, hat and bloodstained gloves were found more than 80 feet away, in a neat pile behind a snag.

• 2b n.

  a tall, dead tree, especially one that is blackened and branchless from being caught in a forest fire.

  See also: rampike  

  • 1953  In the dead quiet of . . . that night . . . a dead spruce snag . . . crashed full length to the ground. . . .
  • 1961  The fire was put out mostly by rain but we cut down smouldering snags and dug out hot spots on a very steep hillside for several days, a dirty and unspectacular job.
  • 1963  Cross cut saw for falling snags and trees on fire-line. . . .