The Collaborative International Dictionary
Snapping \Snap"ping\, a. & n. from Snap, v. Snapping beetle. (Zo["o]l.) See Snap beetle, under Snap. Snapping turtle. (Zo["o]l.)
A large and voracious aquatic turtle ( Chelydra serpentina) common in the fresh waters of the United States; -- so called from its habit of seizing its prey by a snap of its jaws. Called also mud turtle.
See Alligator snapper, under Alligator.
Wiktionary
n. Any of several large American freshwater turtles of the family ''(taxlink Chelydridae family noshow=1)''; they have powerful hooked jaws that close with a snap.
WordNet
n. large aggressive freshwater turtle with powerful jaws
Usage examples of "snapping turtle".
His sister Doro said he was a cross between a snapping turtle and a rat terrier: once he had his teeth in something, he never let go.
Frances pushed her away and backed across the room as she watched the snapping turtle emerge from under the futon merrily chomping on the pump.
He found his balance and then his face went red with strain and he lifted out a snapping turtle that had to be three feet across and weigh almost two hundred pounds.
Few land animals worried him, but he had long been afflicted with an unreasoning fear of aquatic beasts--and now one had appeared in the muddy Rio Grande, where, up to then, they had seen nothing more threatening than the occasional snapping turtle.
The woman was as tenacious as a snapping turtle, but there had to be some way to pry her jaws from his leg.
The blackened, upturned shell of a snapping turtle held the ashes of a small fire, still warm when Yama sifted them through his fingers.
Healey had a face only a snapping turtle could love: round, pugnacious, and wattled.
As she was wading out, feeling clean and light, she got a scare: a big snapping turtle sat on the bank right where she had entered the river.
The head was that of a snapping turtle, with the upper and lower lips ending in a kind of curved beak.
Snapper: Seemingly the living snapping turtle, grown to the size of a small car.
In return, he treated them to descriptions, in his own fashion, of the Middle East, a geographical snapping turtle that even then had the American brain stem in its bite and would not let go.