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),snaked,snak·ing.
to move, twist, or wind: The road snakes among the mountains.
verb (used with object),snaked,snak·ing.
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.
Origin of snake
before 1000; Middle English (noun); Old English snaca; cognate with Middle Low German snake,Old Norse snākr
The snake also suffered from kidney damage, possibly a result of water deprivation near the end of its life.
X-rays reveal what ancient animal mummies keep under wraps|Helen Thompson|August 20, 2020|Science News
Lizard and snake genomes are usually around 2 gigabases, she says.
How tuatara live so long and can withstand cool weather|Jake Buehler|August 5, 2020|Science News
Physicists already knew that tree snakes flatten their bodies as they leap.
Flying snakes wriggle their way through the air|Emily Conover|August 4, 2020|Science News For Students
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.”
Human sperm don’t swim the way that anyone had thought|Jack J. Lee|July 31, 2020|Science News
That’s just like venom glands of snakes, but it’s a first for amphibians, the researchers report July 3 in iScience.
Bizarre caecilians may be the only amphibians with venomous bites|Christie Wilcox|July 3, 2020|Science News
Here the snake oil quotient is a bit more evident than in the skybox seats occupied by insights made using hard science.
All These AIDS ‘Cures’ Are a Fantasy—One That Can Cause Real Harm|Kent Sepkowitz|November 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Which of these foods have science to back them up, and which are nothing but snake oil?
Fish Oil, Turmeric, and Ginseng, Oh My! Are ‘Brain Foods’ B.S.?|Dr. Anand Veeravagu, MD|October 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The snake was particularly kissed and touched as worshippers entered.
Fighting Back With Faith: Inside the Yezidis’ Iraqi Temple|Michael Luongo|August 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Finally, we came to the ornately carved temple portal itself, adorned with an image of a snake to its side.
Fighting Back With Faith: Inside the Yezidis’ Iraqi Temple|Michael Luongo|August 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Then the snake coiled around the child and squeezed her to death.
The $10 Billion Pet Cheetah and Chimp Industry|Sharon Adarlo|July 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
That is the snake, she cried, and when he finds you here he will surely kill us both.
Fairy Tales from Many Lands|Katherine Pyle
Id just as soon see a snake coming, grunted the foreman as he recognized the visitor as Hal Titzell, the cattle buyer.
Slim Evans and his Horse Lightning|Graham M. Dean
Someone told him, whereon he commanded that the kid should be brought to him and the snake also.
Smith and the Pharaohs, and Other Tales|Henry Rider Haggard
So round the corner and up the steps I went, noiselessly as a snake.
Ayesha|H. Rider Haggard
Ever since we came down upon the Snake River we had seen quantities of salmon.
Tracks of a Rolling Stone|Henry J. Coke
British Dictionary definitions for snake
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 snakeRelated adjectives: colubrine, ophidian
Also called: snake in the grassa 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)USto haul (a heavy object, esp a log) by fastening a rope around one end of it
(tr)US(often foll by out)to pull jerkily
(tr)to move in or follow (a sinuous course)
Derived forms of snake
snakelike, adjective
Word Origin for snake
Old English snaca; related to Old Norse snākr snake, Old High German snahhan to crawl, Norwegian snōk snail