snail
Americannoun
-
snails
plural
-
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.
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
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
A tiny snail found in only one lake in the UK has been dubbed as precious as an Egyptian artefact as conservationists bid to save it.
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
He pulled the moon snail out of the bucket.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
Until now, no freshwater cave snails had been documented in China, and the country's subterranean freshwater mollusks had received relatively little scientific attention.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2026
During the first field investigation in August 2025, the team encountered an exceptionally small number of snails.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 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
“Don’t tell me who’s got me and who hasn’t got me. Who do you think you’re talking to? Stick to your snails, Lepellier.”
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
