/sneɪk/
OriginFrom Middle English snake, from Old English snaca (“snake, serpent, reptile”), from Proto-West Germanic *snakō (“slider, snake”), from *snakan (“to creep, slide”), related to Old High German snahhan (“to sneak, slide”). Compare also Proto-Germanic *snēkô (“creeper, crawler”).
Cognate with German Low German Snake, Snaak (“snake”), dialectal German Schnake (“adder”), Danish snog (“grass snake”), Swedish snok (“grass snake”), Norwegian Nynorsk snåk (“viper, adder”), Faroese snákur (“grass snake”), Icelandic snákur (“snake”).
- Any of the suborder Serpentes of legless reptile with long, thin bodies and fork-shaped tongues.
“The man writhed like a trampled snake, and a red foam bubbled from his lips.”
“After dark the train is a lighted snake, as, even when the passengers' lights are out, each carriage has a side-light in the middle just under the eaves.”
- figurativelyA person who acts deceitfully for personal or social gain; a treacherous person.
“Near-synonyms: rat; see also Thesaurus:betrayer”
“Mrs. Kenwigs was horror-stricken to think that she should ever have nourished in her bosom such a snake, adder, viper, serpent, and base crocodile, as Henrietta Petowker.”
“Well, if it was Moore, he's a fucking snake.”
- A tool for unclogging plumbing.
- A tool to aid cable pulling.
- Australia, UKA flavoured jube (confectionary) in the shape of a snake.
- slangTrouser snake; the penis.
- A series of Bézier curves.
- The seventh Lenormand card.
- Multicultural-London-EnglishAn informer; a rat.
“Gem’s a snake for Kamale, man.”
“Yo, bare people and the snakes, yeah, they're just grass / Next minute you're the mate, yeah / Next day stab in the back”
- abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, historicalEllipsis of snake in the tunnel.
“The snake failed to provide an anchor for currency stability and, through it, disinflation.”
- abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsisEllipsis of black snake (“firework that creates a trail of ash”).
- intransitiveTo follow or move in a winding route.
“The path snaked through the forest.”
“The river snakes through the valley.”
“Any Brisbane female interested in snaking down a few beers whilst watching the footy on a big screen?”
- Australia, slang, transitiveTo steal slyly.
“He snaked my DVD!”
“Although it wouldn't be the first time some one patented an idea that I'd had a year earlier.[…]Someone already has :)[…]F*CK ME !! Snaked again !”
- transitiveTo clean using a plumbing snake.
- US, informalTo drag or draw, as a snake from a hole; often with out.
“November 27 1835, N.B. St. John, letter to George Thompson
his wife and children shall not be forced to flee from the hearth of a friend, lest they should be snaked out by men in civic authority”
- To wind round spirally, as a large rope with a smaller, or with cord, the small rope lying in the spaces between the strands of the large one; to worm.
- Multicultural-London-EnglishTo inform; to rat; often with out.
“He says he didn't snake and I believe him.”
- countable, uncountableThe sixth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.
- countable, uncountableAn early computer game, later popular on mobile phones, in which the player attempts to manoeuvre a perpetually growing snake so as to collect food items and avoid colliding with walls or the snake's tail.
- countable, uncountableA surname.
- countable, uncountableA river in the northwestern United States, tributary to the Columbia.
- abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountableEllipsis of Snake Island.
Formssnakes(plural) · snek(alternative) · snakes(present, singular, third-person) · snaking(participle, present) · snaked(participle, past) · snaked(past) · Snakes(plural)