snake
See also: Snake
English
A snake (anaconda).
Alternative forms
- (internet slang, childish, jocular) snek
Etymology
From Middle English snake, from Old English snaca (“snake, serpent, reptile”), from Proto-Germanic *snakô (compare German Low German Snake, Snaak (“snake”), dialectal German Schnake (“adder”), Swedish snok (“grass snake”), Icelandic snákur (“snake”)), derived from *snakaną (“to crawl”) (compare Old High German snahhan), from Proto-Indo-European *sneg- (“to crawl; a creeping thing”). Cognate with Sanskrit नाग (nāgá, “snake”)). Doublet of nāga.
Pronunciation
- enPR: snāk, IPA(key): /ˈsneɪk/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) Audio (file) - Rhymes: -eɪk
Noun
snake (plural snakes)
- A legless reptile of the suborder Serpentes with a long, thin body and a fork-shaped tongue.
- Synonyms: joe blake, serpent
- 1892, Oscar Wilde, A House of Pomegranates:
- The man writhed like a trampled snake, and a red foam bubbled from his lips.
- A treacherous person; a rat.
- 1838, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby:
- 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.
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- (Ireland, UK) Somebody who acts deceitfully for social gain.
- A tool for unclogging plumbing.
- Synonyms: auger, plumber's snake
- A tool to aid cable pulling.
- Synonym: wirepuller
- (Australia) A flavoured jube (confectionary) in the shape of a snake.
- (slang) Trouser snake; the penis.
- Synonym: trouser snake
- (mathematics) A series of Bézier curves.
- (cartomancy) The seventh Lenormand card.
- (MLE, MTE) An informer; a rat.
- Gem’s a snake for Kamale, man.
- (finance, historical) Short for snake in the tunnel.
- 2001, W. Bonefeld, The Politics of Europe: Monetary Union and Class (page 69)
- The snake failed to provide an anchor for currency stability and, through it, disinflation.
- 2001, W. Bonefeld, The Politics of Europe: Monetary Union and Class (page 69)
Derived terms
- caution to snakes
- Snake
- snakebite
- snake in the grass
- snake in the tunnel
- Snake Island
- snake oil
- Snake River
Descendants
- → Maori: neke
- → Sranan Tongo: sneki
Translations
legless reptile
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treacherous person
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plumbing tool
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Verb
snake (third-person singular simple present snakes, present participle snaking, simple past and past participle snaked)
- (intransitive) To follow or move in a winding route.
- Synonyms: slither, wind
- The path snaked through the forest.
- The river snakes through the valley.
- 1996 September 24, Mark Addinall, “Football fever...”, in aus.personals, Usenet:
- Any Brisbane female interested in snaking down a few beers whilst watching the footy on a big screen?
- 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Bournemouth (circa 1880)”, in RAIL, number 947, pages 59-60:
- Opened in June of that year [1880], the station was the southern terminus of the much-lamented Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (the S&D or 'Slow and Dirty'), which snaked its way down from Bath.
- (transitive, Australia, slang) To steal slyly.
- He snaked my DVD!
- 2001 April 5, Hyena, “Home made supercharger ?”, in aus.cars, Usenet:
- 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 !
- (transitive) To clean using a plumbing snake.
- (US, informal) To 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
- November 27 1835, N.B. St. John, letter to George Thompson
- (nautical) 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.
- (MLE) To inform; to rat.
- He says he didn't snake and I believe him.
Translations
to move in a winding path
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See also
- anguine
Further reading
snake on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
- Kasen, Keans, akens, asken, kaens, kenas, nakes, skean, sneak
Middle English
Alternative forms
- snak
- snaca (early)
Etymology
From Old English snaca, from Proto-West Germanic *snakō, from Proto-Germanic *snakô.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsnaːk(ə)/
Noun
snake (plural snakes or snaken or snake)
- snake
- serpent
Descendants
- English: snake
- → Maori: neke
- → Sranan Tongo: sneki
- Scots: snake
References
- “snāke, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-03.