snaffle

plural snaffles

1. A broad-mouthed, loose-ringed bit (metal in a horse's mouth). It brings pressure to bear on the tongue and the corners of the mouth, and is often used as a training bit.

   “I shall have to take the mare to-morrow,” said the Tertium Quid, “and she will stand nothing heavier than a snaffle.”

   1889, Rudyard Kipling, “At the Pit's Mouth”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 54

   2 more examples

   Captain went out in the cab all the morning. Harry came in after school to feed me and give me water. In the afternoon I was put into the cab. Jerry took as much pains to see if the collar and bridle fitted comfortably, as if he had been John Manly over again. When the crupper was let out a hole or two, it all fitted well. There was no bearing rein—no curb—nothing but a plain ring snaffle. What a blessing that was!

   [1877], Anna Sewell, “A London Cab Horse”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part III, page 158

   For many horses the best bit to use in the field is a plain snaffle, with very large rings, so that the bit cannot be pulled through the horse’s mouth. The bridle should have a cavesson, instead of the usual noseband.

   1912, Belle Beach, Riding and Driving for Women, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons

2. figurativelyDecorative wear that looks like a snaffle.

   Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.[…]A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

present singular third person snaffles · participle present snaffling · participle past snaffled · past snaffled

1. transitiveTo put a snaffle on, or control with a snaffle.
2. broadlyfigurativelytransitiveTo quell or suppress.

   Julian Joolby, when will you learn to snaffle your violent emotion?

   1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London

3. transitiveTo clutch by the bridle.
4. informaltransitiveTo grab or seize; to snap up.

   “That was my inspiration back in 2005,” he says, snaffling his third roll.

   2026 April 18, John Thornhill, “Lunch with the FT: Dario Amodei”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3

5. informaltransitiveTo purloin, or obtain by devious means.

   […] the Master at Arms, the senior member of the lower deck and chief policeman, was found to be drunk; he must have snaffled some of the crew's rum ration always kept closely guarded in a special locker […]

   2014, Geoffrey Bennett, The Battles of Coronel and the Falklands, 1914

6. NorfolkUKarchaicintransitiveTo talk foolishly.

   In Norfolk, "jaffle" is used in the sense of idle discourse, of an indecent or malicious character; and a prating busybody is said to be "always a snaffling and jafflin about what don't concern him."

   1855, Notes and Queries, volume 11, page 391