snake in the grass

One who feigns friendship with the intent to deceive. Did you hear that Daria's best friend stole money from her bank account? What a snake in the grass.See also: grass, snake

snake in the grass

a sneaky and despised person. How could I ever have trusted that snake in the grass? John is such a snake in the grass.See also: grass, snake

snake in the grass

A treacherous person, as in Ben secretly applied for the same job as his best friend; no one knew he was such a snake in the grass . This metaphor for treachery, alluding to a poisonous snake concealed in tall grass, was used in 37 b.c. by the Roman poet Virgil ( latet anguis in herba). It was first recorded in English in 1696 as the title of a book by Charles Leslie. See also: grass, snake

a snake in the grass

If you describe someone as a snake in the grass, you mean they are false because they pretend to be your friend while actually harming you. He's a snake in the grass — a guy you really can't trust. Note: This phrase was first used by the Roman poet Virgil in his work `The Eclogues' to refer to a hidden danger. See also: grass, snake

a snake in the grass

a treacherous or deceitful person. Since the late 17th century this expression has entirely superseded the earlier idiom a pad in the straw . Pad is an old dialect term for a toad, an animal that was formerly thought to be poisonous.See also: grass, snake

a ˌsnake in the ˈgrass

(disapproving) a person who pretends to be your friend but who cannot be trusted: We used to be friends, but who knew he’d turn out to be such a snake in the grass?See also: grass, snake

snake in the grass

n. a sneaky and despised person. How could I ever have trusted that snake in the grass? See also: grass, snake

snake in the grass

An underhanded, stealthily treacherous individual. The metaphor was already used by the Roman poet Virgil in his Eclogues (37 b.c.) as well as by the Italian poet Dante in the Inferno of The Divine Comedy (“Hidden like a snake in the grass”). Snakes have been feared and hated for centuries, and the metaphor has remained both vivid and current. It appears equally often on both sides of the Atlantic. Mark Twain used it in Tom Sawyer (1876), “A guileful snake in the grass,” to describe how the boys in Sunday school viewed the hero, who had duped them out of enough “tickets” to win a Bible.See also: grass, snake

snake in the grass

snake in the grass

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a snake in the grass

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a ˌsnake in the ˈgrass

snake in the grass

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Synonyms for snake in the grass

noun a deceitful or treacherous person

Synonyms

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