خَطْفَةٌ

A single act of seizing; or, of taking, or carrying off, by force: (TA:) or, of doing so quickly; of snatching away. (Mgh, Msb, TA.) Hence, [in a tradition,] according 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: (Mgh:) and الخَطْفَةُ signifies what the wolf, (Mgh, Msb, TA,) or the like, (Msb,) snatches away, (Mgh, Msb, TA,) of the limbs, or members, of a living sheep or goat, (Mgh, TA,) or of a living animal; (Msb;) 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: (Mgh, TA:) 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: (K, TA:) for whatever is separated from the living animal, (Mgh, TA,) of flesh or fat, (TA,) is carrion, (Mgh, TA,) 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: (TA:) the reading الخَطَفَة, of the measure فَعَلَة, with fet-h to the medial radical letter, as plural of خَاطِفٌ, is a mistake. (Mgh.)

Also (assumed tropical:) A single suck of a small quantity of milk quickly taken by a child from the breast. (TA.)

For its meaning in the Qur'an, 37:10, see 1.

See also خُطْفٌ.