snap someone's head off
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to speak sharply or angrily to someone
Literally: to break someone's head off suddenly
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
She didn't snap his head off when he suggested she gave him a hand with the laying of the tables for the morning.
Phone him, see him, sort something out and then perhaps we'll be able to have a normal conversation without you snapping my head off!’
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “snap someone's head off” mean?
to speak sharply or angrily to someone Literally: to break someone's head off suddenly
Is “snap someone's head off” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.