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)
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snoods,
present (3rd person singular)
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snooded,
past participle, past
-
snooding
present participle
noun
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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
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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
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snoodssimple
-
have snoodedperfect
-
has snoodedperfect
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am snoodingprogressive
-
are snoodingprogressive
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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
A tom sporting a long red snood draws the attention of hens like flies to honey — although, to their credit, the hens manage to be coy about it.
From New York Times ● Nov. 21, 2022
Normally, turkeys top out around 20 pounds, with fleshy wattles that hang down their necks and another protuberance called a snood hanging over the beak.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 22, 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
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
They’re picky about partners and know what they want: males with long snoods.
From New York Times ● Nov. 21, 2022
However, no one has studied whether females scoff at dull feathers the way they do at puny snoods.
From New York Times ● Nov. 21, 2022
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
"It is only my joke," I stammered; "you have a reputation among the snoods."
From John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn by Neil Munro
Miss Wilson actually appeared in a vivid green pillbox hat, her hair lushly snooded.
From Time Magazine Archive
He did not recognize her at first; it was nearly dark, and her head was snooded in a shawl.
From The Quickening by E. M. Ashe
A goodly number of bareheaded sonsie lasses, wrapped in the inevitable shawl; rather good-looking, healthy and rosy-cheeked were they, with their hair snooded back, and gathered into braids sleek and shining.
From The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland by Margaret Moran Dixon McDougall
Janet has kilted her green kirtle A little aboon her knee, And she has snooded her yellow hair A little aboon her bree, And she is to her father’s ha’, As fast as she can hie.
From Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Second Series by Frank Sidgwick
She died, and they snooded her hair and buried her.
From Audrey by Mary Johnston
Lower a baited hook with a strong wire snooding, and "Yellowskin" will open wide his jaws and swallow it without your feeling the slightest movement of the line.
From By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories by Louis Becke
Give Josh a shilling to make himself a new gaff, and buy a shilling’s worth of snooding and hooks for yourself.
From Menhardoc by C.J. Staniland
Lines of strong cord with hooks bound up the snooding with brass wire were on their winders.
From Menhardoc by C.J. Staniland
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
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.
