/snɛl/
OriginInherited from Middle English snell (“quick, fast”) from Old English snel, snell (“lively, quick”) from Proto-West Germanic *snell, from Proto-Germanic *snellaz (“active, swift, brisk”).
Akin to Old Saxon snel, snell (“active, strenuous”), Dutch snel, Old High German snel (whence German schnell (“quick, swift”), Yiddish שנעל (shnel, “quick, swift”), Italian snello (“quick, nimble”), Old French esnel, isnel (“snell”), and Occitan isnel, irnel (“snell”)), Old Norse snjallr (“skilful, excellent”) (whence Danish snild (“clever”)).
- ScotlandQuick, smart; sharp, active, brisk or nimble; lively.
“That in ilk action, wise and snell / You may shaw Manly fire.”
“That horny-handed, snell, peremptory little man.”
“Amos is a lithe, keen, snell man.”
- ScotlandQuick-witted; clever.
“With all this heavy artillery, somewhat slow and cumbrous, on great questions, he had no want, when he was speaking off-hand, of quick, snell remark, often witty and full of spirit, and often too unex”
- ScotlandHarsh, severe, or stinging.
“Conscience is a rough lad, I grant you, and I am keen and snell also; but never mind, take his advice, and you’ll be some credit to your freens yet, ye scoonrel.”
“Fortunately, we were well prepared for such an emergency, and being sheltered in a safe creek, we roofed the ship with canvas against the snow; and so, with land on every side of us, plenty of moss fu”
- ScotlandA short line of horsehair, gut, monofilament, etc., by which a fishhook or lure is attached to a longer (and usually heavier) line.
“He tied on new baited snells and recovered the current with the oars.”
- ScotlandTo tie a hook to the end of a fishing line with a snell knot.
“Can you show me how to snell a hook?”
- A surname.
- An unincorporated community in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, United States.
- An unincorporated community in Harrison, Marathon County, Wisconsin, United States.
Formssneller(comparative) · snellest(superlative) · snells(plural) · snells(present, singular, third-person) · snelling(participle, present) · snelled(participle, past) · snelled(past)