Snake
Pronunciation
- enPR: snÄk, IPA: /sneɪk/
- Rhymes: -eɪk
Origin
From Middle English snÄke, from Old English snaca ("snake, serpent, reptile"), from Proto-Germanic *snakô (compare dialectal German Schnake ("adder"), dialectal Low German Snaak ("snake"), Swedish snok ("grass snake")), derived from *snakanÄ… ("to crawl") (compare Old High German snahhan), from Proto-Indo-European *snog-, *sneg- 'to crawl; a creeping thing' (compare Sanskrit नाग (nÄga, "snake")).
Full definition of snake
Noun
snake
(plural snakes)- A legless reptile of the sub-order Serpentes with a long, thin body and a fork-shaped tongue.
- The man writhed like a trampled snake, and a red foam bubbled from his lips.
- A treacherous person.
- Mrs. Kenwigs was horror-stricken to think that she should ever have nourished in her bosom such a snake, adder, viper, serpent, and base crocodile, as Henrietta Petowker.
- A tool for unclogging plumbing.
- A tool to aid cable pulling.
- (slang) A trouser snake; the penis.
Synonyms
- (reptile) joe blake, serpent
- (plumbing tool) auger, plumber's snake
- (tool for cable pulling) wirepuller
Derived terms
Verb
- (intransitive) To follow or move in a winding route.The path snaked through the forest.
- 1996, September 24, Mark Addinall, Football fever..., Any Brisbane female interested in snaking down a few beers whilst watching the footy on a big screen?
- The river snakes through the valley.
- (transitive, Australia, slang) To steal slyly.He snaked my DVD!
- 2001, April 5, Hyena, Home made supercharger ?, Although it wouldn't be the first time some one patented an idea that I'd had a year earlier....Someone already has :)...F*CK ME !! Â Snaked again !
- (transitive) To clean using a plumbing snake.
- (US, informal) To drag or draw, as a snake from a hole; often with out.
- (nautical) To wind round spirally, as a large rope with a smaller, or with cord, the small rope lying in the spaces between the strands of the large one; to worm.