From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsnarlsnarl /snɑːl $ snɑːrl/ verb 1 [intransitive]HBAC if an animal snarls, it makes a low angry sound and shows its teeth → growlsnarl at The dog growled and snarled at me.2 [intransitive, transitive]SAY to speak or say something in a nasty, angry way ‘Shut up, ’ he snarled.► see thesaurus at say3 [transitive] (also snarl up British English)TTCTTR to prevent traffic from moving The traffic was snarled up on both sides of the road.Grammar Snarl is usually passive in this meaning. —snarl noun [countable] an angry snarl→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
snarl• ""Keep your dirty hands off me, '' he snarled.• Every time he asked her a question she snarled a bad-tempered answer.• He has too often been seen snarling and too seldom seen smiling.• Whitlock snarled angrily and tossed the Browning on to the ground.• The old steward came hurrying up, huffing and puffing, but Carey snarled at him so he slunk away.• The most important marketer for the school could be the secretary who snarls at parents when they call or phone.• They snarled at them as if they were criminals and took their papers as if they'd like to tear them to shreds.• Margarett snarled in her diary later that winter.• They're going to give us the information, but it keeps getting snarled up in paperwork.• "What do they want?" snarled Weinstein.• Roads, although often snarled with traffic, are better than in most booming suburbs.Origin snarl 1. (1500-1600) snar “to snarl” ((1500-1600)), from the sound. 2. (1300-1400) snarl “net for catching things” ((14-19 centuries)), from → SNARE1 