snood
Americannoun
-
the distinctive headband formerly worn by young unmarried women in Scotland and northern England.
-
a headband for the hair.
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a netlike hat or part of a hat or fabric that holds or covers the back of a woman's hair.
-
the pendulous skin over the beak of a turkey.
verb (used with object)
-
snoods,
present (3rd person singular)
-
snooded,
past participle, past
-
snooding
present participle
noun
-
a pouchlike hat, often of net, loosely holding a woman's hair at the back
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a headband, esp one formerly worn by young unmarried women in Scotland
-
vet science a long fleshy appendage that hangs over the upper beak of turkeys
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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snoodsimple
-
snoodssimple
-
have snoodedperfect
-
has snoodedperfect
-
am snoodingprogressive
-
are snoodingprogressive
-
is snoodingprogressive
-
have been snoodingperfect progressive
-
has been snoodingperfect progressive
Past
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snoodedsimple
-
had snoodedperfect
-
was snoodingprogressive
-
were snoodingprogressive
-
had been snoodingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of snood
before 900; Middle English: fillet, ribbon; Old English snōd
Explanation
A snood is a woman's hairnet or fitted head covering. You've probably seen paintings of nineteenth century women wearing snoods. A snood covers and pulls back the hair, much like a hairnet worn by a restaurant worker. But while a hairnet is functional, meant to keep strands of hair from ending up in customers' food, a snood is ornamental, more like a hat or scarf. It's uncommon to see women wearing snoods these days, but they show up all the time in nineteenth century art. The root of snood is the Old English snod, "hair ribbon."
Vocabulary lists containing snood
Put a Lid On It: Hats, Hoods, and Other Headgear
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Song of Solomon
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Honey and Me
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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:
"I have a lucky snood - the face masks people use when they ski - always on my person," she says.
From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2026
He found that snood length was the primary factor that explained which male a female chose as a mate.
From New York Times ● Nov. 21, 2022
Good thing the gift shop features those in three styles: Ninja, pleated and the ever-popular snood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2021
Biochemists at Manchester University have developed a snood with “germ trap” technology.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 25, 2020
They looked very well in their simple suits, Meg’s in silvery drab, with a blue velvet snood, lace frills, and the pearl pin.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
"It was jumpers, blankets, one of those big snoods, or just getting up and moving around."
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2024
Like snoods, other fleshy structures on a turkey’s face and neck can change color during displays.
From New York Times ● Nov. 21, 2022
There were puffer metallic snoods and elbow-length leather opera gloves; enveloping stoles in duchess satin and faux fur, and big blocky platforms.
From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2021
Gloves and snoods have long been the subject of ridicule in the Premier League, but at least Neil Lennon is laying the foundations to stamp them out of the game.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2014
She was an old lady with auburn hair elaborately dressed and singularly bound in snoods of velvet.
From Tante by Anne Douglas Sedgwick
Miss Wilson actually appeared in a vivid green pillbox hat, her hair lushly snooded.
From Time Magazine Archive
She was small, but very lovely, with something almost Puritanical in her dainty, precise dress and carefully snooded golden hair.
From Scottish sketches by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
With silk was snooded her hair of gold, The Castle’s won, the Castle’s won!
From The Songs of Ranild by Thomas James Wise
I never saw a fairy with snooded or tied up hair.
From Lore of Proserpine by Maurice Henry Hewlett
The bride she is winsome and bonnie, Her hair it is snooded sae sleek; And faithful and kind is her Johnnie, Yet fast fa' the tears on her cheek.
From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume I. The Songs of Scotland of the past half century by Charles Rogers
Then anchor me there Beyond the beckoning poplars, where The larch is snooding her flowery hair With wreaths of morning shadow.
From The World's Best Poetry, Volume 3 Sorrow and Consolation by Bliss Carman
You see we want strong lines and snooding out here.”
From Menhardoc by C.J. Staniland
With that I put it away in the trunk, and changed the subject by turning my attention to snooding a score or two of fish hooks for conger fishing.
From Jethou or Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles by Ernest R. (Ernest Richard) Suffling
Lines of strong cord with hooks bound up the snooding with brass wire were on their winders.
From Menhardoc by C.J. Staniland
Later on I showed them a 27-stranded American cotton line 100 fathoms long, with a 4-inch hook, curved in the shank, as thick as a pencil, and "eyed" for a twisted wire snooding.
From By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories by Louis Becke
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