snail

[sneyl]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR snail ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

any mollusk of the class Gastropoda, having a spirally coiled shell and a ventral muscular foot on which it slowly glides about.

a slow or lazy person; sluggard.

Machinery. a cam having the form of a spiral.

Midwestern and Western U.S. a sweet roll in spiral form, especially a cinnamon roll or piece of Danish pastry.

Origin of snail

before 900; Middle English snail, snayl(e), Old English snegel; cognate with Low German snagel, German (dial.) Schnegel

Related formssnail·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for snail

clam, abalone, crustacean, mollusk, scallop, conch, crawfish, prawn, shrimp, lobster, mussel, oyster, straggler, idler, procrastinator, sluggard, slug, plodder, dawdler, whelk

Examples from the Web for snail

Contemporary Examples of snail

The Daily Pic: James Nares slows Manhattan's rat race to a snail's pace.
New York on Quaaludes
Blake Gopnik
April 23, 2013

Historical Examples of snail

I travel; but it seems to be like the snail, with my house upon my head.
P.'s Correspondence (From "Mosses From An Old Manse")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
We had made the first part of our journey at a snail's pace.
In the Heart of Vosges
Matilda Betham-Edwards
Cochleatus is from cochlea, a snail, from resembling its shell.
The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise
M. E. Hard
I have eaten nothing,” replied the man, “since I ceased to be a snail.
Folk-Lore and Legends: North American Indian
Anonymous
Finally, in folk-lore the snail is an uncanny or demoniac being, because it has horns.
Memoirs
Charles Godfrey Leland

British Dictionary definitions for snail

snail

noun

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)

any other gastropod with a spirally coiled shell, such as a whelk

a slow-moving or lazy person or animal

Derived Formssnail-like, adjective

Word Origin for snail

Old English snægl; related to Old Norse snigill, Old High German snecko

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

Word Origin and History for snail

Old English snægl, from Proto-Germanic *snagila (cf. Old Saxon snegil, Old Norse snigill, Danish snegl, Swedish snigel, Middle High German snegel, dialectal German Schnegel, Old High German snecko, German Schnecke "snail"), from *snog-, variant of PIE root *sneg- "to crawl, creep; creeping thing" (see snake (n.)). The word essentially is a diminutive form of Old English snaca "snake," which literally means "creeping thing." Also formerly used of slugs. Symbolic of slowness since at least c.1000; snail's pace is attested from c.1400.