upsnatch

present singular third person upsnatches · participle present upsnatching · participle past upsnatched · past upsnatched

1. transitiveTo seize or snatch up.

   With Zephyr from his palace in the west, thou dost upsnatch the Twins from cradled rest, And strain them to thy breast, [...]

   1855, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, The poets and poetry of America

   2 more examples

   With pity struck, with horror for my deed, The babe upsnatch'd away I bore with speed ; And, knowing Zion should be captive led, Far to these mountains of the East I sped.

   1832, Blackwood's magazine, volume 31

   To her the wood-ivy, like a spirit, hovers round the old hawthorn, and everywhere "mystic Presences of power" "upsnatch" her "to the timeless, then return" her "to the Hour."

   1907, Martha Foote Crow, Elizabeth Barrett Browning