SNATCHER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does snatcher mean? 

• SNATCHER (noun)
  The noun SNATCHER has 2 senses:

1. a thief who grabs and runs

2. someone who unlawfully seizes and detains a victim (usually for ransom)

  Familiarity information: SNATCHER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SNATCHER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A thief who grabs and runs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

a purse snatcher

Hypernyms ("snatcher" is a kind of...):

stealer; thief (a criminal who takes property belonging to someone else with the intention of keeping it or selling it)

Derivation:

snatch (to grasp hastily or eagerly)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who unlawfully seizes and detains a victim (usually for ransom)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

abductor; kidnaper; kidnapper; snatcher

Hypernyms ("snatcher" is a kind of...):

captor; capturer (a person who captures and holds people or animals)

criminal; crook; felon; malefactor; outlaw (someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "snatcher"):

crimp; crimper (someone who tricks or coerces men into service as sailors or soldiers)

seizer; shanghaier (a kidnapper who drugs men and takes them for compulsory service aboard a ship)

Derivation:

snatch (take away to an undisclosed location against their will and usually in order to extract a ransom)

 Context examples 

"Perhaps a body-snatcher," I suggested.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

There was Red Ike, ’im that was warned off the ring ’cause ’e fought a cross with Bittoon; and there was Fightin’ Yussef, who would sell ’is mother for a seven-shillin’-bit; the third was Chris McCarthy, who is a fogle-snatcher by trade, with a pitch outside the ’Aymarket Theatre.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)