Jump to:

• snake's-head
  snake's-head

  noun

  checkered lily.
• snake's head
  snake's head

  noun

  a European fritillary plant, Fritillaria meleagris, of damp meadows, having purple-and-white chequered flowers

snake's-head

American  

[sneyks-hed] / ˈsneɪksˌhɛd /

noun

1. checkered lily.

---

snake's head British  

noun

1. a European fritillary plant, Fritillaria meleagris, of damp meadows, having purple-and-white chequered flowers

---

Etymology

Origin of snake's-head

First recorded in 1730–40

Example Sentences

A snake’s-head on the old railroads was where a rail got loose from the fish-plate at one end and came up over the wheel instead of staying down under it.

From Track's End Being the Narrative of Judson Pitcher's Strange Winter Spent There As Told by Himself and Edited by Hayden Carruth Including an Accurate Account of His Numerous Adventures, and the Facts Concerning His Several Surprising Escapes from Death Now First Printed in Full by Carleton, Clifford

By these, but on the lower ground almost level with the water, big forget-me-nots, butterburs, and wild snake's-head lilies should be set, and all the crimson and white varieties of garden daisy.

From The Naturalist on the Thames by Cornish, C. J. (Charles John)

In Gloucestershire the fruit of the Arum maculatum is snake's-victuals, and snake's-head is a common name for thefritillary.

From The Folk-lore of Plants by Dyer, T. F. Thiselton (Thomas Firminger Thiselton)