snakehead

English

Etymology

snake +‎ head

Noun

snakehead (plural snakeheads)

1. (fish) A family of perciform fish native to Africa and Asia, Channidae.
   • 2015, Labodalih Sembiring, translating Eka Kurniawan, Man Tiger, Verso 2015, p. 1:

     Through this plantation ran a creek full of snakeheads and eels, its overflow swelling the swamp around it.

2. (slang) A Chinese smuggler, especially one who smuggles people
   • 2008, Frozen River, 00:33:10

     Why would they want to run? -- To get away from the snakeheads. -- What's that? -- The snakeheads pay to get them here and then they gotta work off what they owe.

3. A showy perennial plant, Chelone glabra, found in North American marshlands; the turtlehead
4. A loose, bent-up end of one of the strap rails, or flat rails, formerly used on American railroads. It was sometimes so bent by the passage of a train as to slip over a wheel and pierce the bottom of a car.
5. The guinea-hen flower, Fritillaria meleagris.

Translations

fish

• Assamese: শ’ল (as) (xól)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鱧 (zh), 鳢 (zh) (lǐ)

• Finnish: käärmeenpää
• French: ophicéphale (fr)

• German: Schlangenkopffisch m
• Japanese: ライギョ (raigyo), 雷魚 (らいぎょ, raigyo)
• Russian: змееголо́вая ры́ба f (zmejegolóvaja rýba), змееголов (ru) (zmejegolov)
• Vietnamese: cá chuối, cá đô, cá lóc, cá sộp, cá tràu, cá xộp, cá quả

smuggler

• French: passeur (fr)