ginger snap
2
2.3
- noun
- /ˈdʒɪndʒər næp/
:
ginger snap
- Afterward we're having lemonade and ginger snaps.
- ginger snaps cookies
Examples
-
They're out of ginger snaps.
-
As for the crushed ginger snap?
Academic text (2009) -
Jeff, don’t take the ginger snaps!
-
I walked in the back door of the house on Collar Hill and smelled pipe tobacco, ginger snaps, and baking potatoes.
Blog text (17) -
Yeah, also there's the ginger snaps right there and fudge peanut blossom cookies.
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I baked you some ginger snaps for dessert.
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Cool, can you bring me back some ginger snaps from the store?
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After dinner, we enjoyed a plate of homemade ginger snaps.
Synonyms
4
4.2
A small crisp cookie flavored with ginger often eaten at holidays
3
3.0
A crisp round cookie made with ginger and spices like cinnamon
1
2.5
A sweet baked treat flavored with warm spices like cinnamon
A small hard biscuit flavored with ginger often eaten with tea
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituents give useful clues: 'ginger' clearly signals the spice/flavour and 'snap' evokes crispness or something that breaks with a snap, so a learner can infer a crunchy ginger-flavoured item. However, 'snap' does not unambiguously denote a cookie for many learners (its cookie sense is lexicalized in English), so the precise category (a small round cookie) is not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Ginger snap combines ginger, the warm spice, and snap, the quick breaking sound, to create the image of a small spicy 'cookie' that breaks with a clear 'snap'. So the name helps you remember it is a small, spicy and 'crisp' cookie.