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:
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
But last March, seven typed pages, apparently containing the former Zappos chief executive’s final wishes, surfaced via snail mail to the Las Vegas courthouse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
I stopped breathing when I saw Fred’s hand wrapped around the huge snail shell, his thin wrist and bulky watch.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
That tiny moment could have changed people’s perception about the snails, which they found kind of nuts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Just 21 Madeiran lands snails were found clinging to a rock on Portugal's Bugio Island.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 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
Fish, mobile snails, sea urchins, and bivalves such as clams, oysters, and mussels all require faster metabolisms to support movement and, in many cases, predatory lifestyles.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
As a well-kitted, bottle-blond bon vivant with a taste for oysters and snails, he seems to have pushed hard on the limits of his own sumptuary laws.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
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.
