snarfed; snarfing; snarfs

transitive verb

: to eat (something) quickly or greedily : scoff entry 3
snarfed down some pizza
… class-action lawyers who gobbled up Monday's ruling like Iditarod [Trail Sled Dog Race] dogs snarfing kibble.Steven Levy
In locker rooms all over Florida and Arizona, the ersatz baseball players are snarfing up the free food as if there were no tomorrow.George Vecsey
More workers snarf down lunch at their desks instead of at restaurants or the employee cafeteria, according to a survey from KFC, the fast-food chain.The Wall Street Journal

Examples of snarf in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The data the hackers snarfed up came from May through October 2022 and Jan. 2, 2023. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 17 July 2024 Maybe there’s a group of high school kids snarfing down their subs after school. Whizy Kim, Vox, 24 June 2024 Untouched charcuterie spreads at the recent Grammys telecast were left to sweat because no one wanted to be caught snarfing salami in front of Taylor Swift or Beyoncé. Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Mar. 2024 Two of the biggest films of 2023, Barbie and Oppenheimer, have become awards juggernauts, snarfing up nominations at precursors like the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Awards. David Sims, The Atlantic, 18 Jan. 2024 Chrome is slow, a memory hog, and has been known to snarf up users’ private search data for the company’s purposes. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 2 Nov. 2023 In one colorful scene, Mr. Cohen, played by Vincent D’Onofrio, sits in a mansion snarfing a club sandwich and snorting with laughter on the phone with Mr. Plotkin, played by Seth Rogen. Brooks Barnes, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2023 Squirrels snarf hard taco shells, and abscond with Nutella jars; subway rats chow down on pizza, while seagulls have ripped fries and even a KFC wrap straight out of human mouths. Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 21 Feb. 2023 Ed Yong has written a great post on a new paper on how blue whales snarf up half a million calories in every gulp. Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, 9 Dec. 2010

Word History

Etymology

perhaps blend of snack entry 2 and scarf entry 3

First Known Use

circa 1963, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of snarf was circa 1963

Dictionary Entries Near snarf

Cite this Entry

“Snarf.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snarf. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

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