Definition of "snatch up" []

• To grasp hastily or eagerly (verb)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "Reflex might have dictated he snatch up the bottle when he fled the bear."
• "The most meticulous of book-keepers would abandon his records when his life was at risk, and if he had time to take anything but his life with him, he would certainly snatch up the most precious of his goods, and let the parchments go."
• "She wanted to snatch up one of the exquisite porcelain shepherdesses smirking down at her from the mantel and hurl it at the back of his head."