snail
Americannoun
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snails
plural
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any mollusk of the class Gastropoda, having a spirally coiled shell and a ventral muscular foot on which it slowly glides about.
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a slow or lazy person; sluggard.
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Machinery. a cam having the form of a spiral.
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Midwestern and Western U.S. a sweet roll in spiral form, especially a cinnamon roll or piece of Danish pastry.
noun
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any of numerous terrestrial or freshwater gastropod molluscs with a spirally coiled shell, esp any of the family Helicidae, such as Helix aspersa ( garden snail )
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any other gastropod with a spirally coiled shell, such as a whelk
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a slow-moving or lazy person or animal
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of snail
before 900; Middle English snail, snayl ( e ), Old English snegel; cognate with Low German snagel, German (dial.) Schnegel
Explanation
A snail is a small mollusk with a spiral-shaped shell. Snails are famous for moving very slowly, and for leaving a trail of slime behind them. If you see snails on a restaurant menu, they're more likely to be listed as escargot, or "edible snail" in French. There are three general categories of snails: land snails, sea snails, and freshwater snails. They all have shells that they can retreat within—without a shell, a similar animal is instead called a slug. Snail can be traced back to the diminutive form of the Old English snaca, "snake" or "creeping thing."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mr. Jones describes a freshwater snail that, sensing a predator, instinctively climbs or descends depending on where the perceived threat tends to hunt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
And instead of simply asking fishermen to stop, it has helped develop snail farming as an alternative livelihood.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
And there is also increased concern about a tiny snail found only around superheated springs on the ocean floor.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
"Some bee species burrow holes in wood or in the ground, or use empty structures for nests. Some species in Europe and Africa even build their nests in empty snail shells,"
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
She picked up an enterprising snail that was crawling out of the open basket.
From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
There’s another scene as well, where the kid comes home from school and she sits in his little place where he has his snails.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Today, rows of giant African snails crawl inside wooden pens in Adjoa, a coastal community where fishing families are testing the new source of income.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
In contrast, only about half of mollusks, including clams and snails, disappeared.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
On a recent visit, it was hard to decide what was more surreal: the carved statues of snails, chameleons and turtles that decorate the church’s exterior or the circuslike scene around it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
The snails liked to burrow deep beneath the tangled tree roots.
From "Willodeen" by Katherine Applegate
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
