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 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
We fed our model with data including climate, snake species richness and socioeconomic indicators.
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
However, temperature alone does not determine how large a snake can become.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
She was still real jumpy about having that snake around her wrist.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
The Washington Post pool report had people dressed as leopards and snakes and in “tiger-print dinner jackets.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 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
While rolling, the snakes reached peak forward velocities ranging from 1.72 to 3.69 meters per second, approximately four times their maximum speed when moving through lateral undulation, the familiar side-to-side motion used by most snakes.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026
By studying video recordings captured from multiple angles, researchers discovered that the snakes coordinate their movements with remarkable precision.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026
“You really think I just come here on my precious little time off to tell snakes all about you?” she asked.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
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
On Wednesday morning, a sea of people snaked around a downtown warehouse in San Francisco, waiting to get into the hottest event in town: the Claude Founder House, hosted by Anthropic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 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
Turner snaked through the gauntlet, as his teammates playfully slapped and shoved him around.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
As the final words left their lips, purple smoke snaked from their mouths to dance in the center of the circle, right above the Gran’s head.
From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega
Word spread that a fuel tanker was nearing a filling station in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, and the snaking queue surged as drivers jockeyed for position and motorcyclists pressed in.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
When I left at 2 a.m., a long line was snaking from the door.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
Video footage of the store’s opening showed customers waiting in a line snaking through the shopping plaza to enter the store, with shoppers trying samples and purchasing tote bags and snacks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
Later, it encountered a stray charging cord snaking across the ground as it vacuumed.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
“Maybe you should take a break,” Natalie said from across the room, where she had twin earbud cords snaking out of her hair down to her laptop.
From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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