hoop snake


noun
  1. any of several harmless snakes, as the mud snake and rainbow snake, fabled to take its tail in its mouth and roll along like a hoop.

Origin of hoop snake

1
An Americanism dating back to 1775–85

Words Nearby hoop snake

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use hoop snake in a sentence

  • He stretched his neck and saw that which suggested an overgrown hoop-snake rolling down the hill.

    'Me-Smith' | Caroline Lockhart
  • The "hoop snake" was quite as authentic to us as the blue racer, although no one had actually seen one.

  • It is applied also to the southern hoop-snake (Abastor erythrogrammus).

    Myths of the Cherokee | James Mooney
  • I confess I was deceived in—I won't say that man, but that hoop-snake.

    A Dream of Empire | William Henry Venable
  • I heard an old hunter say he once stood by a lone tree on the prairie and saw a hoop-snake come rolling toward the tree.

British Dictionary definitions for hoop snake

hoop snake

noun
  1. any of various North American snakes, such as the mud snake (Farancia abacura), that were formerly thought to hold the tail in the mouth and roll along like a hoop

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012