snake
Americannoun
-
snakes
plural
-
any of numerous limbless, scaly, elongate reptiles of the suborder Serpentes, comprising venomous and nonvenomous species inhabiting tropical and temperate areas.
-
a treacherous person; an insidious enemy.
-
Building Trades.
-
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.
-
Also called wirepuller. a length of resilient steel wire, for threading through an electrical conduit so that wire can be pulled through after it.
-
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
-
to wind or make (one's course, way, etc.) in the manner of a snake.
to snake one's way through a crowd.
-
to drag or haul, especially by a chain or rope, as a log.
noun
-
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
-
Also called: snake in the grass. a deceitful or treacherous person
-
anything resembling a snake in appearance or action
-
(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
-
a tool in the form of a long flexible wire for unblocking drains
verb
-
(intr) to glide or move like a snake
-
(tr) to haul (a heavy object, esp a log) by fastening a rope around one end of it
-
(tr) (often foll by out) to pull jerkily
-
(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
When venom enters the body, however, it can cause snake envenoming.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026
It produced both a baseline floor and a potential upper ceiling for snake envenomings and fatalities.
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
But the monkeys all ran to the outer branches of the tree, and I realized it couldn’t be the snake because they were peering into the distance— out over the lake.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
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
By repeating this carefully timed pattern, the snakes generate continuous forward rolling motion.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026
Despite traveling so quickly, the snakes were able to follow a narrow racetrack measuring just 20 centimeters across, demonstrating that their rolling movements are not simply uncontrolled tumbling.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026
She had the clear upper hand, being both invisible and a badger, a natural adversary to snakes.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
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
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
Dozens of wires snaked around three electronic boxes, one of them connected to an old-school car battery for supplemental power.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Shirley could hardly keep up with her as she snaked her way through the crowd of travelers.
From "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" by Bette Bao Lord
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
To judge from the lines of young, very devoted fans snaking around the cemetery, Geese has already built the requisite subculture to thrive longer-term.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 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
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.
