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snake
[ sneyk ]
noun
- 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. Compare snake in the grass.
- 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)
- to move, twist, or wind:
The road snakes among the mountains.
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.
snake
/ sneɪk /
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 colubrineophidian
- Also calledsnake 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)
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Derived Forms
- ˈsnakeˌlike, adjective
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Other Words From
- snakelike adjective
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Word History and Origins
Origin of snake1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of snake1
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Example Sentences
The snake also suffered from kidney damage, possibly a result of water deprivation near the end of its life.
Lizard and snake genomes are usually around 2 gigabases, she says.
Physicists already knew that tree snakes flatten their bodies as they leap.
Over 300 years ago, microscopy pioneer Antonie van Leeuwenhoek described sperm tails swaying in a symmetric pattern, like “that of a snake or an eel.”
That’s just like venom glands of snakes, but it’s a first for amphibians, the researchers report July 3 in iScience.
For these Arabs, Iran is the raised (and loaded) head of the snake.
The black mamba snake slithering towards Lakshmi is highly venomous.
Here the snake oil quotient is a bit more evident than in the skybox seats occupied by insights made using hard science.
Which of these foods have science to back them up, and which are nothing but snake oil?
The snake was particularly kissed and touched as worshippers entered.
He heard Mohammedans alluding to a Brahmin as a leader—so might a wolf and a snake make common alliance against a watch dog.
On his loins was a lion of great fierceness, and coiled round his waist was a hissing mamba (snake).
So they bore Spotted Snake away with them in the canoe, while the Dogtown gang shrieked farewells from the old landing.
Dorothy again caught the furtive glance of the woman's evil eyes, and recoiled from it as if she had trodden upon a snake.
A few hundreds in a few hungry pockets, and we run a snake through the legislature declaring that lake state property.
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About This Word
What else does snake mean?
Snake can be slang for a person who acts in a deceitful, underhanded, or backstabbing way.
Where does snake come from?
Snakes and serpents have long been figures of danger and deception. We need look no further than the Judeo-Christian story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where a diabolical serpent duped Eve into eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Things didn’t go too well for her or Adam after that …
Deep fears and myths, not to mention the slithering and tongue-flicking nature of the reptile, helped make the word snake refer to a “treacherous, unreliable, and deceptive person” by at least the 1580s. An extended expression is snake in the grass, or “concealed danger,” recorded in the early 1600s. Snake, as a verb for “sneak” or “cheat,” is found in the 1860s and 1870s.
It’s not all so high-brow when it comes to sneaky snakes. The cartoon The Simpsons, for instance, has featured the minor character, and comical criminal, Snake Jailbird since 1991.
How is snake used in real life?
Snake is a widely used term for an untrustworthy person, especially deceitful men in romantic contexts.
forgot what a snake looked like until I met you
— brea🎃 (@brea_tolbert) November 14, 2018
The verb snake is also used when talking about someone acting in a fiendish, snake-like way.
If I find out that you snaked me I won’t move mad but the energy towards you will never be the same
— habib💎 (@H4bib0) May 18, 2020
And then of course there are more lighthearted takes on those sly and scheming snakes out there.
when you're in the middle of a makeout sesh and it hits you right then that this guy is a snake just like the rest. 🐍🐍🐍 pic.twitter.com/DL3IxEJkIF
— alyx🌵 (@AlyxGreenwood98) February 26, 2017
More examples of snake:
“Should I Connect With this Guy? 10 Signs He May be a Snake in the Grass”
—PreEngaged (title), March 2015
“Can’t trust everybody around you, those be the main ones ready to snake you”
—@taethomas35, November 2018
Note
This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.
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