snake
Americannoun
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snakes
plural
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any of numerous limbless, scaly, elongate reptiles of the suborder Serpentes, comprising venomous and nonvenomous species inhabiting tropical and temperate areas.
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a treacherous person; an insidious enemy.
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Building Trades.
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Also called auger, plumber's snake. (in plumbing) a device for dislodging obstructions in curved pipes, having a head fed into the pipe at the end of a flexible metal band.
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Also called wirepuller. a length of resilient steel wire, for threading through an electrical conduit so that wire can be pulled through after it.
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verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
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to wind or make (one's course, way, etc.) in the manner of a snake.
to snake one's way through a crowd.
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to drag or haul, especially by a chain or rope, as a log.
noun
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any reptile of the suborder Ophidia (or Serpentes ), typically having a scaly cylindrical limbless body, fused eyelids, and a jaw modified for swallowing large prey: includes venomous forms such as cobras and rattlesnakes, large nonvenomous constrictors (boas and pythons), and small harmless types such as the grass snake
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Also called: snake in the grass. a deceitful or treacherous person
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anything resembling a snake in appearance or action
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(in the European Union) a former system of managing a group of currencies by allowing the exchange rate of each of them only to fluctuate within narrow limits
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a tool in the form of a long flexible wire for unblocking drains
verb
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(intr) to glide or move like a snake
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(tr) to haul (a heavy object, esp a log) by fastening a rope around one end of it
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(tr) (often foll by out) to pull jerkily
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(tr) to move in or follow (a sinuous course)
Usage
What else does snake mean? Snake can be slang for a person who acts in a deceitful, underhanded, or backstabbing way.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of snake
before 1000; Middle English (noun); Old English snaca; cognate with Middle Low German snake, Old Norse snākr
Explanation
A snake is a long reptile without legs that moves by undulating, arching the bones in its back and pushing against the ground. A pet snake is easy to care for, unless you're squeamish about feeding it mice. Like other reptiles, snakes are covered in smooth scales. Unlike most, snakes have flexible jaws that allow them to eat things much wider than their own narrow bodies — if you see a big lump in the middle of a garter snake's body, you can be pretty sure it's just eaten a mouse. Because so many people are afraid of snakes (the vast majority of which are not poisonous), the word has also come to mean "treacherous or deceitful person." Snake is a verb as well, meaning "move like a snake."
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:
We fed our model with data including climate, snake species richness and socioeconomic indicators.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026
We conclude from our findings that snake envenoming is a public health crisis on a far greater scale than official statistics have shown.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026
As for the surviving animals, they are being looked after at a snake farm in Germany.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
The species was named Vasuki indicus in honor of Vasuki, the mythical serpent associated with the Hindu deity Shiva, who is traditionally depicted with the snake wrapped around his neck.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
Mrs. Wendleken was mad because the newspaper article didn’t say it was Leroy Herdman’s snake that caused all this trouble, and she was mad at the principal because he wouldn’t say so either.
From "The Best School Year Ever" by Barbara Robinson
Your browser may be a pit of snakes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
At the center of this object used for protection and to treat ailments, the child god stands atop a pair of crocodiles and grasps scorpions and snakes, guarding us against these threatening creatures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
Rather than spinning their entire bodies together, the snakes alternate between rolling on one side and swinging a curved section of their bodies downward beside their heads.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026
Tiny snakes found in Southeast Asia have developed an extraordinary way to escape danger.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026
So he’d helped Ophie plant marigolds around the outside of the burrow to keep the snakes away.
From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland
Long lines of people trying to withdraw their money from Ueno branches snaked down Asuncion's streets on Tuesday.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026
My vista for this year’s eclipse was the cliffs of Mirador de Las Lomas, 45 minutes outside León, where a line of seekers snaked along the cliffside in either direction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
A queue of hundreds of people who came to pay their respects snaked around the venue on Monday morning with thousands expected over the course of the day.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
Cars honking their horns snaked through the capital of the small South American country that does not usually get a lot of attention for anything.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
The line snaked from the red dot of Wenatchee to a new red dot labeled Spokane.
From "The Honest Truth" by Dan Gemeinhart
Later, it encountered a stray charging cord snaking across the ground as it vacuumed.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
The new Madring street circuit is in an unprepossessing location, snaking around an exhibition centre near the Spanish capital's international airport, about a 15-minute drive from the city with no traffic.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
After a five-hour wait for petrol, Mongolian pensioner Nasanjargal is still 10 places from the pump, with dozens of cars behind him in a queue snaking into the arid steppe.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
It started with a 75-yard pick-six from King Rich on a snaking sideline return that gave Orange Lutheran a lead they never conceded.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
Meanwhile, the van kept snaking its way toward the Lincoln Tunnel.
From "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan
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