snail

[ sneyl ]

noun

1. any mollusk of the class Gastropoda, having a spirally coiled shell and a ventral muscular foot on which it slowly glides about.
2. a slow or lazy person; sluggard.
3. Machinery. a cam having the form of a spiral.
4. Midwestern and Western U.S. a sweet roll in spiral form, especially a cinnamon roll or piece of Danish pastry.

snail

/ sneɪl /

noun

1. 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 )
2. any other gastropod with a spirally coiled shell, such as a whelk
3. a slow-moving or lazy person or animal

Derived Forms

• ˈsnail-ˌlike, adjective

Other Words From

• snaillike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of snail¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of snail¹

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

Example Sentences

Reader Orlando Saint-Sebastien was surprised to learn that snails have tongues and asked how sticky they are.

From Science News

They had the same shape as venom proteins from spiders and cone snails, Vetter says.

From Science News For Students

She put the snails in her water tunnel and observed how well they were able to cling to different surfaces.

From Science News For Students

After Glanzman’s team administered a “reminder” shock to the snails, the researchers were surprised to quickly notice different, newer synaptic connections growing between the neurons.

From Nautilus

With it, researchers have edited genes in a wide variety of animals, including dogs, mice, snails, cows and mosquitoes.

From Science News For Students

Most days, I might as well be studying some obscure species of sea snail.

From The Daily Beast

The Daily Pic: James Nares slows Manhattan's rat race to a snail's pace.

From The Daily Beast

The way to understand memory processing is not through Marcel Proust, as Kandel discovered in the 1960s, but through a sea snail.

From The Daily Beast

The green damp hung upon the low walls, and the tracks of the snail and slug glistened in the light; but all was still as death.

From Project Gutenberg

They were well-to-do folk and, according to Cesar Birotteau who knew them, old man Crottat was as "close as a snail."

From Project Gutenberg

As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away, like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

From Project Gutenberg

Aye, there it was, slowly winding up the steep white road, on which it seemed to move at a snail's pace.

From Project Gutenberg

And in some respects that something that looked so very much like a railway resembled not so much a snail as a snake.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• clam
• conch
• crawfish
• crustacean
• lobster
• mollusk
• mussel
• oyster
• prawn
• scallop
• shrimp