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snarf

American

[snahrf] / snɑrf /

verb (used with object)

Slang.

to eat quickly and voraciously; scarf (often followed by down orup ).

snarf British

/ snɑːf /

verb

informal to eat or drink greedily

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of snarf

First recorded in 1965–70; of uncertain origin; possibly a combination of snort ( def. ) and scarf ²; possibly onomatopoeic

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Instead, they continue to snarf up lavish compensation as figureheads.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 20, 2023

Chrome is slow, a memory hog, and has been known to snarf up users’ private search data for the company’s purposes.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 2, 2023

What Amazon does know about is how to snarf up personal data from its customers and exploit it for profit.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 18, 2022

After all, they have not had years of exposure to the God-awful things that pets routinely snarf down.

From New York Times • Jun. 14, 2021

"This program starts by snarfing the entire database into core, then…." :snarf & barf: /snarf'n-barf`/ n.

From The Jargon File, Version 2.9.10, 01 Jul 1992 by Raymond, Eric S.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023