snake

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See also: Snake

English

A snake (anaconda).

Etymology

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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)

  1. A legless reptile of the sub-order Serpentes with a long, thin body and a fork-shaped tongue.
    Synonyms: joe blake, serpent
  2. A treacherous person.
    • 1838, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby‎[2]:
      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.
  3. A tool for unclogging plumbing.
    Synonyms: auger, plumber's snake
  4. A tool to aid cable pulling.
    Synonym: wirepuller
  5. (slang) Trouser snake; the penis.
    Synonym: trouser snake
  6. (mathematics) A series of Bézier curves.
  7. (cartomancy) The seventh Lenormand card.

Derived terms

Terms derived from snake (noun)

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Descendants

  • Sranan Tongo: sneki

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

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  1. (intransitive) To follow or move in a winding route.
    Synonyms: slither, wind
    The path snaked through the forest.
    • 1996 September 24, Mark Addinall, “Football fever...”, in aus.personals‎[3] (Usenet):
      Any Brisbane female interested in snaking down a few beers whilst watching the footy on a big screen?
    The river snakes through the valley.
  2. (transitive, Australia, slang) To steal slyly.
    He snaked my DVD!
    • 2001 April 5, Hyena, “Home made supercharger ?”, in aus.cars‎[4] (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 !
  3. (transitive) To clean using a plumbing snake.
  4. (US, informal) To drag or draw, as a snake from a hole; often with out.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Bartlett to this entry?)
  5. (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.

Translations

See also

Further reading

Anagrams

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English snaca, from Proto-Germanic *snakô.

Pronunciation

Noun

snake (plural snakes or snaken or snake)

  1. snake
  2. serpent

Descendants

References

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