snood
Americannoun
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the distinctive headband formerly worn by young unmarried women in Scotland and northern England.
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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.
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the pendulous skin over the beak of a turkey.
verb (used with object)
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
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have snoodedperfect
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has snoodedperfect
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am snoodingprogressive
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are snoodingprogressive
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is snoodingprogressive
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have been snoodingperfect progressive
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has been snoodingperfect progressive
Past
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snoodedsimple
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had snoodedperfect
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was snoodingprogressive
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were snoodingprogressive
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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:
After it was found 11 days later with false number plates, officers found a partial DNA match - linked to Camp - on a snood that had been left in the driver's seat.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2025
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
Good thing the gift shop features those in three styles: Ninja, pleated and the ever-popular snood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2021
According to inventor Paul Hope, the snood is more breathable and flexible than a conventional mask, meaning patients can also wear them.
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
Dr. Buchholz found that males with longer snoods had fewer coccidia parasites, which don’t harm adults but can sicken or kill chicks, and possess genes that may make them resistant to coccidia.
From New York Times ● Nov. 21, 2022
They’re picky about partners and know what they want: males with long snoods.
From New York Times ● Nov. 21, 2022
There are scarves and snoods to conceal neck-vein bulges when attempting a major bluff.
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2018
A pair o’ gloves he gae to me, And silken snoods he gae me twa; And I will wear them for his sake, The bonnie lad that’s far awa.
From The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham by Burns, Robert
Miss Wilson actually appeared in a vivid green pillbox hat, her hair lushly snooded.
From Time Magazine Archive
Over Christine herself had come the same bright change; her still, calm face often dimpled into smiles, her pale-gold hair was snooded with a pretty ribbon, and her dress a little richer.
From Scottish sketches by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
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 McDougall, Margaret Moran Dixon
Janet has kilted her green kirtleA little aboon her knee,And she has snooded her yellow hairA little aboon her bree,And she’s awa’ to Carterhaugh,As fast as she can hie.
From A Collection of Ballads by Lang, Andrew
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's awa to Carterhaugh, As fast as she can hie.
From Ballad Book by Bates, Katherine Lee
Lines of strong cord with hooks bound up the snooding with brass wire were on their winders.
From Menhardoc by Staniland, C.J.
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 Becke, Louis
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 Staniland, C.J.
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 Becke, Louis
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 Suffling, Ernest R. (Ernest Richard)
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.
