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:
Then we slowly snail pace across PCH, and go over Topanga Canyon to get back into the Valley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
Two newly identified snail species have expanded the known diversity of European land snails.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026
Several British zoos are setting up so-called ark populations of the glutinous snail, one of Europe's rarest species, using creatures bred in a back garden in Ceredigion.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
With years of data showing that people will rent and watch just about anything, Netflix was free to make a home for all the bombs and duds that it previously offered via snail mail.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
“I’ll put me feet on one wall at night and me head on the other without having to curl over like a snail in the house with three brothers.”
From "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff
A third technique involved fossilized shells from Melanopsis, a genus of freshwater snails found within the sediment.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 27, 2026
"If you lose garden snails, you lose the song thrush," she warned.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
They were the first invertebrates -- a broad group of animals including spiders, snails and worms -- shown to use celestial navigation for such long trips.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
The venom peptides that snakes and snails use are built as closed loops, which is what lets them survive intact.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
“We’re hoping she’ll be able to scent out peacock snails better than we can.”
From "Willodeen" by Katherine Applegate
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