Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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خَطْفَةٌ

Root: خطف

Full Definition

خَطْفَةٌ A single act of seizing; or, of taking, or carrying off, by force: or, of doing so quickly; of snatching away. Hence, [in a trad.,] accord. to one reading, نَهَى عَنْ كُلِّ ذِى خَطْفَةٍ, meaning He prohibited the prey of whatever snatches away the prey, and goes away with it, not withholding it for its owner: or, as some say, what snatches away with its talon, or claw: but the reading commonly known is, نَهَى عَنِ الخَطْفَةِ: and الخَطْفَةُ signifies what the wolf, or the like, snatches away, of the limbs, or members, of a living sheep or goat, or of a living animal; or what the dog snatches away from the limbs, or members, of the animal of the chase, of flesh &c., while the animal is alive: or the limb, or member, which the beast or bird of prey seizes, or carries off by force, or which a man cuts off, from the beast that is alive: for whatever is separated from the living animal, of flesh or fat, is carrion, unlawful to be eaten: the prohibition originated from the Prophet's finding, when he came to El-Medeeneh, that the people loved and ate the humps of camels and the tails of sheep: the reading الخَطَفَة, of the measure فَعَلَة, with fet-h to the medial radical letter, as pl. of خَاطِفٌ, is a mistake.
2 Also A single suck of a small quantity of milk quickly taken by a child from the breast.
3 For its meaning in the Kur xxxvii. 10, see 1.
4 See also خُطْفٌ.
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