snake
Americannoun
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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:
That’s because when a snake bites and punctures the skin and transfers venom into the victim’s body, the venom attacks the skin, soft tissue and connective tissue beneath it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Beyond influencing how people respond to snake encounters, the researchers say the myth has also affected how rattlesnakes are treated.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 10, 2026
What’s more, spirulina leaves a sticky film akin to dental plaque inside the pipes that snake through Mars’s plants, threatening to build up and cause mold, a food-safety hazard.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
Bigsby said it was a struggle to get the snake out of the car as it had wrapped itself around something.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
I thought, “Now wouldn’t it be something if that snake decided to come down in this hole?”
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
A lab-raised monkey, born without a fear of snakes, can be taught to fear them—but not to fear flowers, a difference that suggests an inherited readiness to learn a survival strategy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Neatly labeled drawers hold hand fans, plastic snakes, buttons, buckles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Videos of villagers knee-deep in floodwater frantically trying to catch snakes swimming in a flooded Guangxi town went viral on social media, with a related hashtag racking up over 180 million views.
From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026
Dazzling orange lava snakes across Europe's largest active volcano, as shown in striking new footage.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
I do not have an inordinate fear of snakes, not even rattlers.
From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
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
As for the social media star, Watson wonders if he'll still draw in as many YouTube viewers or if some fans will feel like he has "snaked" his fellow Sidemen.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
Turner snaked through the gauntlet, as his teammates playfully slapped and shoved him around.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
Lines to the courthouse in the early days of the trial snaked through the jasmine-scented courtyard in the Bay Area’s always-gloomy early mornings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026
The long plank snaked out and upwards, coming to rest gently but firmly on the parapet edge.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
For days now, a long line has been snaking around the two blocks leading up to the Durian Ninja fruit stall in Tampines, a busy township in the east of Singapore.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
Twentysomethings clad in Deftones and Pikachu tees, Dodgers caps, and beaded bracelets joined the procession, snaking from the dance floor through the bar area and back down again.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026
Jeers to a snaking Delta baggage-drop line in Minneapolis last week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Photos and a video Aiello provided show bladed wire snaking around the decomposing animal’s neck and curved horns, as well as the front legs, in a desert landscape dotted with boulders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
Each day, the sun grew hotter and more punishing, too hot for June, and the fence seemed to get longer and longer, like a living thing snaking out across the prairie.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
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.
