snap up

present singular third person snaps up · participle present snapping up · participle past snapped up · past snapped up

1. colloquialtransitiveTo buy or acquire quickly, usually because the item is a bargain or in short supply or something one has been searching for.

   Spanish businesses have spent nearly $60 billion snapping up British firms, culminating in the recent purchase of Scottish Power by Iberdrola, a Spanish utility.

   2007 May 3, “Conquistadors on the beach”, in The Economist, →ISSN

   1 more example

   I dashed into the mall; bought a gift; raced to the card store, snapped up a two-fer gift-bag special and was back in my car in 26 minutes. I could medal in power shopping.

   2004 October 29, Carol McAlice Currie, “Unposted laws make downtown seem unwelcoming”, in Statesman Journal, volume 152, number 214, Salem, OR, page 1C

2. archaiccolloquialtransitiveTo snap at (a person); to speak harshly to.

   [H]e saw Jonathan a horse-back, and, asking him how he did, Jonathan d—d him, and bid him not trouble him with impertinent questions; therefore the tradesman desired to know the reason why Jonathan snapped him up in that rude angry manner, when he had spoken to him so civilly.

   1840, Henry Fielding, The History of the Life of Jonathan Wild, the Great, page xlviii

   1 more example

   'Sir, I know what to do,' retorted Mrs Pipchin, 'and of course shall do it. Susan Nipper,' snapping her up particularly short, 'a month's warning from this hour.' 'Oh indeed!' cried Susan, loftily. 'Yes,' returned Mrs Pipchin, 'and don't smile at me, you minx, or I'll know the reason why! Go along with you this minute!'

   1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC