snapshot

snap +‎ shot

• IPA^(key): /ˈsnæpʃɒt/

• Audio (US)

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snapshot (plural snapshots)

1. A photograph, especially one taken quickly or in a sudden moment of opportunity.

   He carried a snapshot of his daughter.

2. A glimpse of something; a portrayal of something at a moment in time.

   The article offered a snapshot of life in that region.

   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 70:

     I hope you've enjoyed reading this series. As usual, it's just a snapshot because there's so much to say but only so many words can make it into print.

3. (computing) A file or set of files captured at a particular time, often capable of being reloaded to restore the earlier state.

   This game is so hard that I find myself taking a snapshot every few seconds in case I get killed.

4. (soccer) A quick, unplanned or unexpected shot.
   • 2011 March 2, Chris Whyatt, “Arsenal 5 - 0 Leyton Orient”, in BBC‎:

     Yet Revell misjudged his promising position in the area to put his point-blank snapshot wide from only six yards out.

5. (firearms) A quick offhand shot, made without deliberately taking aim over the sights.
   • 1892, Stanley Waterloo, A Man and a Woman:

     How quick the eye and hand to catch him [the ruffed grouse] when he rises from the underbrush and is out of sight in the wood before the untrained sportsman stops him with what is little more than a snapshot, so instantaneously must all be done!

• snapshotter
• snapshottery
• Snapchat

snapshot (third-person singular simple present snapshots, present participle snapshotting, simple past and past participle snapshotted)

1. (transitive) To take a photograph of.
   • 1904, David T Hanbury, Sport and Travel in the Northland of Canada:

     As he did not appear disposed to move off, I took my camera and approached within about thirty yards, when I snapshotted him.

2. (transitive, computing) To capture the state of, in a snapshot.
   • 2007, David E. Irwin, An Operating System Architecture for Networked Server Infrastructure, page 30:

     Filer appliances also offer programmatic snapshotting and cloning at the block-level or file system-level.

• “snapshot”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.