snaky, a.
(ˈsneɪkɪ)
Also 6–7 snakie, 7 Sc. snaiky, 8 snakey.
[f. snake n. + -y.]
1. a. Formed or composed of snakes.
Chiefly in allusions to the serpent hair of the Furies.
| 1567 Turberv. Epit., etc. 64 b, All ye that Ladies are of Lymbo Lake With hissing haire, and Snakie bush bedect. 1595 Spenser Sonn. lxxxv, The Furies fell Theyr snaky heads doe combe. 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. iv. ii. 1735 Megæra with her snakie twine. 1633 P. Fletcher Purple Isl. v. lxv, The Furies flung their snakie whips away. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 559 Thicker than the snakie locks That curld Megæra. 1710 Addison Tatler No. 154 ¶3 The Gorgon with Snakey Hair. 1862 Cox Tales Gods & Heroes 203 Pegasos, the child of Gorgo with the snaky hair. 1868 Morris Earthly Par. (1870) I. i. 290 He drew the head out by the snaky hairs. |
b. the snaky sisters, the Furies.
| 1728 Ramsay Fables, Miser & Minos 31 The three-pow'd dog of hell Gowl'd terrible a triple yell; Which rouz'd the snaky Sisters three. |
2. Entwined with snakes. Said of the caduceus.
| 1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 1292 In his hand He tooke Caduceus his snakie wand. 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. i. i, What? vse the vertue of your snakie tip-staffe there vpon us? 1700 Dryden Ovid, Metamorphoses i. 928 In his Hand He holds the Virtue of the Snaky Wand. 1735 Dict. Polygraph. II. s.v. Mercury, A caduceus, or snaky staff, viz. a slender wand, about which two snakes did annodate. |
3. a. Of or pertaining to a snake; freq. in allusive use, venomous, guileful, deceitful, treacherous.
| a 1586 Sidney Arcadia v. (1605) 455 O snakie ambition, which can wind thy selfe in so many figures. 1596 P. Colse Penelope (1880) 162 Knowne trueth ne snaky enuies spite, Nor wrath can touch. 1612 Chapman Rev. Bussy d'Ambois v. v. 208 Hide, hide thy snaky head! to cloisters fly. 1671 Milton P.R. i. 120 So to the Coast of Jordan he directs His easie steps; girded with snaky wiles. 1729 Savage Wanderer iii. 125 Can the dove's bosom snakey venom draw? c 1840 De Quincey Murder Wks. 1862 IV. 65 The oiliness and snaky insinuation of his demeanour. 1865 Kingsley Herew. vi, His thin Punic lips curved into a snaky smile. 1879 Browning Ivan Ivanovitch 215 Have at the snaky tongue! That's the right way with wolves! 1933 J. V. Allen Cowboy Lore iv. 101 If you reckon your mounts are some snakey and raw Just try ridin' herd on a stove that won't draw. 1966 M. & O. Murie Wapiti Wilderness iv. 71 Oh, I believe he's a pretty good horse. He may be a little bit snaky. 1980 [see shavetail s.v. shave v. 13]. |
b. Austral. and N.Z. slang. Angry, annoyed.
| 1919 W. H. Downing Digger Dialects 46 Snaky,..(1) angry (e.g., to turn snaky); (2) irritable. 1941 K. Tennant Battlers 86 Now lay off, sport... Don't go snaky on the kid. 1943 Amer. Speech XVIII. 90 [In New Zealand] To go crook is to show anger or annoyance... The verbs to go snaky, to go maggoty..have the same implications. 1945 N. Marsh Died in Wool vii. 155 There was a hold up... Everyone was snakey. Young Doug says the sheep are dry and I say they're not. 1974 D. Williamson Three Plays 34 What are you snaky about this time? 1981 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 28 Nov. 23/1 They remain very snaky indeed about allegedly non⁓impartial treatment from players and umpires in Perth. |
4. Resembling the form of a snake; long and winding or twisting; sinuous, tortuous.
| 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iii. ii. 92 Those crisped snakie golden locks Which make such wanton gambols with the winde. c 1611 Chapman Iliad ii. 769 The crooked armes Meander bow'd with his so snakie flood. 1695 Blackmore Pr. Arth. ii. 153 Their watry Train in Snaky Windings slides. 1827 Carlyle Misc. (1840) I. 15 No story proceeds without..voluminous tagrags rolling after it in many a snaky twine. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. iv. 126 The black sand lay thick between the snaky ridges of lava. 1887 Palgrave Ulysses 4 Huge woolly camels..thrust out their shaggy snaky necks. |
5. snaky letter, a sibilant. nonce-use.
| 1599 Minsheu Sp. Gram. 8 One of the Culebr{iacu}nas létras, the snakie or hissing letters. |
6. Of places: Infested with snakes.
| 1856 Lady Canning in Hare Two Noble Lives (1893) II. 121 A charming ride round jungly lanes, with..tangles—very snaky, I should fear. 1883 E. C. Rollins New Eng. Bygones 185 The place was said to be snaky. |
7. Relating to snakes. (Cf. snake-story.)
| 1882 Daily News 18 Jan. 5/5 ‘Snaky’ stories are only fit for that presently-to-vanish corps, the Marines. |
8. Comb., as snaky-footed, snaky-haired, snaky-headed, etc., snaky-sparkling adjs.; snaky-like adv.
| 1591 Spenser Ruins of Rome 178 Nor swelling streames of that God [Tiber] snakie-paced. 1596 ― F.Q. vii. vi. 18 He on her shoulder laid His snaky-wreathed Mace. 1596 C. Fitzgeffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 96 The snaky-hayred Furies loathsome cell. 1638 Junius Paint. Ancients 60 The snaky-headed Furies tearing..and thrusting a hand-full of hissing serpents. 1736 Ainsworth Eng.-Lat. Dict. 1, Snaky handed, or snouted (as an elephant), anguimanus. Snaky footed (as the fabulous giants), anguipedes. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. iii. i. iv, May not Murder come; and, with her snaky-sparkling head, illuminate this murk! 1855 Smedley Occult Sci. 181 He persuaded that snaky-tailed monster to accompany him. 1871 B. Taylor Faust (1875) II. ii. iii. 134 Her smooth braids, snaky-like, intwine. |