snare

noun

1. A trap (especially one made from a loop of wire, string, or leather).

   “He […] watched Beavis’s long-toothed mouth open and clap to like a rabbit snare.”

   “He felt a snare tightening around his throat; he gasped and threw a leg out of the bed, where it jerked for a second or two, thumping the steel frame, and died.”

2. A mental or psychological trap.

   “If thou retire, the Dauphin, well appointed, Stands with the snares of war to tangle thee:”

   “[…] if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.”

   “[…] and I had now liv’d two Years under these Uneasinesses, which indeed made my Life much less comfortable than it was before; as may well be imagin’d by any who know what it is to live in the constant Snare of the Fear of Man […]”

   ““[…] riches are a great snare.””

   “They were devious war aims, and Allenby’s campaign was fought with a maximum of snare and subterfuge.”

3. A loop of cord used in obstetric cases, to hold or to pull a fetus from the mother animal.
4. A similar looped instrument formerly used to remove tumours etc.
5. A set of stiff wires held under tension against the bottom head of a drum to create a rattling sound.
6. A snare drum.
7. Any of a class of proteins whose primary role is to mediate vesicle fusion.

verb

1. (transitive)To catch or hold, especially with a loop.

   “The mournful crocodile / With sorrow snares relenting passengers.”

   “Lest that too heavenly form […] snare them.”

   “Instead, it aimed for a more important assurance: that if A.I. raises writers’ productivity or the quality of their output, guild members should snare an equitable share of the performance gains. And the W.G.A. got it.”

2. (figuratively, transitive)To ensnare.
3. (intransitive, transitive, uncommon)To play (a snare drum, or a beat on or as if on a snare drum).

   “[…] the slightest recollection of hearing the wind whistling through the cracks in the old house or the rain snaring its tat-a-tat on the rusty tin roof.”

   “[…] T-Ray snared the drum in the background.”

   “[…] drummer snaring away on his little drum, tur-r-r-rump! tur-r-r-rump! tur-r-r-rump! r-r-rump, r-r-rump, r-r-rump! I love drums.”

name

1. A surname.