snake /snāk/

1. A serpent, or member of the Ophidia, a suborder of elongated limbless (or all but limbless) scaly carnivorous reptiles, often venomous, with forked tongue, no eyelids or external ears, and teeth fused to the bones that bear them
2. An ungrateful or treacherous person (in allusion to one of Aesop's fables)
3. A wretch or drudge
4. Anything snakelike in form or movement
5. (also plumber's snake) an apparatus for clearing blocked pipes
6. An apparatus for blasting a passage through a minefield
7. Formerly, the band (narrower than the tunnel allowed by the IMF on the world market) within which the relative values of certain EC currencies were allowed to float

1. To move sinuously or follow a winding course
2. To creep

To drag

snakeˈlike adjective

snakeˈwise adverb

In the manner of a snake

snākˈily adverb

snākˈiness noun

snākˈish adjective

snākˈishness noun

snākˈy adjective

1. Snakelike
2. Treacherous

snakeˈbird noun

1. The darter
2. The wryneck

snakeˈbite noun

1. The bite of a venomous snake
2. The condition or symptoms of a victim of a snakebite
3. A drink made of lager and cider in equal measures

snakeˈ-charmer noun

A person who handles snakes and gets them to perform rhythmical movements

snake cult noun

Serpent-worship

snake dance noun

A religious dance of the Hopi people in which snakes are handled

snake eel noun

An eel without a tail fin

snake eyes singular noun

A score of two ones made when two dice are thrown

snake fence noun (US)

A worm fence (qv)

snake fly noun

A neuropterous insect (genus Raphidia) with a necklike prothorax

snakeˈhead noun

1. A freshwater fish of tropical Asia and Africa with a snakelike body
2. A member of a Chinese criminal gang specializing in transporting illegal migrants to other countries

snakeˈ-hipped adjective

Slim-hipped

snakeˈ-house noun

A place where snakes are kept

snake lizard noun

A legless lizard of Australia and New Guinea

snakeˈ-oil noun

Any substance or mixture without medicinal value but sold as medicine

snakeˈ-pit noun (figurative)

1. A mental hospital
2. A place, or circumstances, characterized by disordered emotions and relationships

snakeˈroot noun

Bistort, milkwort, Aristolochia, or any other plant whose root has been thought good for snakebites

snake'sˈ-head noun

Fritillary

snakeˈskin noun

The skin of a snake, esp when made into leather (also adjective)

snakeˈstone noun

1. A fossil ammonite
2. A stone thought to cure snakebite

snakeˈweed noun

Bistort

snakeˈwood noun

Letterwood

snake in the grass (figurative)

1. Someone who injures treacherously or furtively
2. A lurking danger

snakes and ladders

A board game played with counters and dice in which ‘ladders' afford short cuts to the finish, but ‘snakes' oblige players to descend to nearer the starting-point

• tolerance doses
• tolerances
• tolerant
• tolerantly
• tolerate
• tolerated
• tolerates
• tolerating
• toleration
• tolerationism
• tolerationisms
• tolerationist
• tolerationists
• tolerations
• tolerator
• tolerators
• toles
• to let
• toleware
• tolewares
• toling
• tolings
• toll
• tollable
• tollage