snapping

Pluralsnappings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of snap.

   The turtle was snapping at anything that drifted near its shell.

   Snapping the dry twigs in half, he built a small fire by the river.

   Note

   The -ing form keeps the verb's grammar. It takes a direct object when snap is transitive (snapping the dry twigs) and a preposition when it is not (snapping at anything nearby). That gives a quick test against the nouns. The noun takes of, as in the snapping of the beam, and it can go plural as snappings. The gerund takes a direct object and never goes plural.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The sharp sound or sudden motion produced when something breaks, clicks, or shuts abruptly.

   The loud snapping of the support beam sent everyone running for the exits.

   A faint snapping told her the chocolate bar had broken cleanly in two.

   Similarcracking, popping, clicking

   Note

   A noun that can be counted as well as heard: snappings, in the plural, can be logged one by one. Karl August Boman's 1947 study of temporomandibular joint arthrosis tallies them across patients. Some were heard during examination, while others were felt or reported by the patient. In that clinical use the word covers a snap sensed inside the body, not only one that carries across a room.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act of speaking sharply or irritably at someone, often in a brief, cutting outburst.

   Her habitual snapping at junior staff slowly eroded the team's morale.

   The coach's snapping at the referee earned him an early warning.

   Similarsniping, barking, snarling

   Note

   Here the noun keeps the verb's preposition. Snapping is done at someone, and the at follows it into the noun. Dickens, in Dombey and Son, lists "sharp snappings at poor Berry" among an ogress's daily pleasures. Sharp is the natural adjective to pair with it. The plural turns a single outburst into a habit, much as it turns the sound of a snap into a countable event.

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