hit a snag
To encounter an unexpected problem or delay.
Their plans to finish the garden that weekend hit a snag when an unseasonal snowfall dropped several inches on what should have become the pumpkin patch that day.
noun
A stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch.
The coat of arms / Now on a naked snag in triumph borne.
A dead tree that remains standing.
A tree, or a branch of a tree, fixed in the bottom of a river or other navigable water, and rising nearly or quite to the surface, by which boats are sometimes pierced and sunk.
‘A’most used-up I am, I do declare!’ she observed. ‘The jolting in the cars is pretty nigh as bad as if the rail was full of snags and sawyers.’
[…]I watched for sunken stones; I was learning to clap my teeth smartly before my heart flew out, when I shaved by a fluke some infernal sly old snag that would have ripped the life out of the tin-pot steamboat and drowned all the pilgrims;[…]
Any sharp protuberant part of an object, which may catch, scratch, or tear other objects brought into contact with it.
A tooth projecting beyond the others; a broken or decayed tooth.
To ſee our Women's Teeth look white. / And ev'ry ſaucy ill-bred Fellow / Sneers at a Mouth profoundly yellow. / In China none hold Women ſweet, / Except their Snags are black as jett.
verb
To catch or tear (e.g. fabric) upon a rough surface or projection.
Be careful not to snag your stockings on that concrete bench!
To damage or sink (a vessel) by collision; said of a tree or branch fixed to the bottom of a navigable body of water and partially submerged or rising to just beneath the surface.
The steamboat was snagged on the Mississippi River in 1862.
To fish by means of dragging a large hook or hooks on a line, intending to impale the body (rather than the mouth) of the target.
We snagged for spoonbill from the eastern shore of the Mississippi River.
To obtain or pick up, especially in a quick or surreptitious way.
Ella snagged a bottle of water from the fridge before leaving for her jog.
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To cut the snags or branches from, as the stem of a tree; to hew roughly.
When felled and snagged, one end of the tree is placed upon a small sledge, and dragged out of the bush by oxen
noun
A light meal.
A sausage.
I fire up the barbie and start cooking snags.
‘You can get the chooks and snags from the fridge if you want,’ he replied. I smiled, remembering my bewilderment upon receiving exactly the same command at my very first barbecue back in Sydney a month after I′d first arrived.
A goal.
2003, Greg Baum, "Silver anniversary of a goal achieved", The Age "It just kept coming down and I just kept putting them through the middle," he said. "I got an opportunity, and I kicked a few snags."