▪ I. snake, n.
(sneɪk)
Forms: 1 snaca, 2– snake, 6 snayke, snack.
[OE. snaca, = MLG. snake (LG. snake, snaak): cf. ON. snákr (poet.), Sw. snok, Da. snog, which may be from LG.]
I. 1. a. One or other of the limbless vertebrates constituting the reptilian order Ophidia (characterized by a greatly elongated body, tapering tail, and smooth scaly integument), some species of which are noted for their venomous properties; an ophidian, a serpent. Also, in popular use, applied to some species of Lacerta, and to certain snake-like amphibians.
The various species are freq. distinguished by a prefix denoting colour or marking, habitat, or other characteristic feature, as black-, carpet-, coach-whip-, coral-, corn-, diamond-, grass-, hooded, rattle-, ribbon-, ringed, tiger-, whip-snake, etc. (see these words).
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke x. 19 Ic sealde eow anweald to tredenne ofer næddran & snacan. a 1023 Wulfstan Hom. (1883) 192 Sy Dan snaca on weᵹe and næddre on pæðe. 1154 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1137, Hi dyden heom in quarterne þar nadres & snakes & pades wæron inne. a 1200 Moral Ode 273 Þeor beð naddren and snaken, eueten and frude. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2805 It warp vt of hise hond, And wurð sone an uglike snake. 13.. K. Alis. 5972 For hij libben by addren, and snaken. a 1340 Hampole Psalter xiii. 5 Tricherously þai wroght venome of snakis vndire þe lippes of þa. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. 3347 Whos vertu is al venym to distroye,..Of dragoun, serpent, adder & of snake. 1486 Bk. St. Albans C ij, Ther be in woddys..wormys calde edders..and also ther be snakys of the same kynde. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 173 Edder, Snack, swift, or such like. 1570 Levins Manip. 198/16 A Snayke, anguis. 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. vi. 202 Th' Eft, Snake, and Dipsas (causing deadly Thirst). 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. v. 42 Thou shouldst come like a Furie crown'd with Snakes. 1661 J. Childrey Brit. Bacon. 73 No Snakes or Adders are to be found about Badminton. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1824) III. 167 That horrible fætor, which even the commonest and the most harmless snakes are still found to diffuse. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam i. xiii. 236 Then..would the Snake Relax his suffocating grasp. 1847 L. Leichhardt Overland Exped. i. 16 A carpet snake and a brown snake with yellow belly. 1873 Dawson Earth & Man ix. 217 A peculiarity, seen in some snakes, namely a joint in the middle of the jaw enabling its sides to expand. |
| transf. and fig. 1821 Shelley Adonais xxii, Swift as a Thought by the snake Memory stung. 1847 Tennyson Princ. iii. 27 At these words the snake, My secret, seem'd to stir within my breast. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1883) 753 The Apostle first tramples on the snake of any mere personal annoyance. 1885 Times (weekly ed.) 18 Sept. 14/3 There must be snakes of some sort in each earthly Eden. |
b. A representation, image, or figure of a snake.
| 1579–80 in Nichols Progr. Q. Eliz. II. 290 An armering of golde,..being a snake with a mean white saphire on the hedd. 1688 [see sense 5]. 1818 R. P. Knight Symb. Lang. (1876) 15 The winged disk of the sun is placed between two hooded snakes (or asps). 1859 Tennyson Merlin & V. 737 She hung her head, The snake of gold slid from her hair. 1903 J. E. Harrison Study Grk. Relig. vii. 331 The snakes sculptured on the top round the hollow cup. |
c. In
pl. as an exclamation,
esp. great snakes!| 1839 Spirit of Times 17 Aug. 283/3 Snakes! such a row! 1888 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms II. xi. 190 So the muchacha went back on yer—snakes alive! I kinder expected it. 1891 Scribner's Mag. Sept. 293/1 Why in snakes should anybody want to be a sculptor, if you come to that? 1897 F. T. Bullen Cruise ‘Cachalot’ i. (1901) 4 Great snakes! why, here's a sailor man for sure. 1922 E. Raymond Tell England ix. 122, I thought we'd be last for the Swimming Cup. But snakes alive! we'll get in the semi-final. 1927 G. D. H. & M. Cole Murder at Crome House xxii. 271 But, snakes, Flint—this is Exeter! 1930 G. B. Shaw Apple Cart i. 15 Holy snakes! look at Bill. |
2. In figurative or allusive uses:
a. With reference to the ingratitude or treachery displayed by the snake in æsop's fable (1. x).
| 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 343, I feare me, you but warme the starued Snake, Who, cherisht in your breasts, will sting your hearts. 1671 Milton Samson 763 Drawn to wear out miserable days, Entangl'd with a poysnous bosom snake. 1688 Sir S. Morland in Pepys' Diary & Corr. (1879) VI. 160 To assure me that I was taking a snake into my bosom. 1865 Kingsley Herew. I. ix. 214 The wild Viking would have crushed the growing snake in his bosom. |
b. Used to denote some lurking danger, suspicious circumstance or person, etc.;
esp. in the
phr. a snake in the grass (after Virgil
Ecl. iii. 93
Latet anguis in herba).
| 1611 W. Barksted Hiren (1876) 109 O could this diuell my soule so transforme That I must eate that snake in him did lurke. 1659 Haslerig in Burton's Diary (1828) IV. 337 Consider what a snake lies under this fair Declaration. 1677 A. Yarranton Eng. Impr. 101 Hold, hold, you drive too fast; there is a snake in the Bush. 1696 [C. Leslie] (title), The Snake in the Grass. 1709 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) II. 173 There is a Snake in the grasse, and the designe is mischievous. 1881 Evans Leic. Gloss., Sneck-i'-the-gress, a sneak; a traitor; a treacherous deceiver. 1907 E. Gosse Father & Son xi. 281 He did not scruple to remind the Deity of various objections to a life of pleasure and of the snakes that lie hidden in the grass of evening parties. 1978 J. Irving World according to Garp xiv. 271 We were playing in Dallas, when that snake in the grass..came up on my blind side. |
† c. to eat (or feed on) snakes, as a means of renewing one's youth or vigour.
Obs.| 1603 Dekker Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 103, I eate Snakes, my Lord, I eate Snakes. My heart shall neuer haue a wrinkle in it. a 1625 Fletcher Elder Brother iv. iv, That you have eat a Snake, and are grown young, game⁓some, and rampant. a 1640 Massinger, etc. Old Law v. i, He hath left off o' late to feed on snakes; His beard's turn'd white again. |
d. to wake snakes, (
a) (see
quot. 1872); (
b) to rouse oneself, to look lively; (
c) see
wake v. 8 c.;
to have snakes in one's boots,
to see snakes, to have delirium tremens.
U.S. slang.| 1835 A. B. Longstreet Georgia Scenes 6 Oh, wake snakes, and walk your chalks! c 1859 in Bartlett Dict. Amer. (1860) 498 Well, here I be; wake snakes, the day's a-breaking. 1872 Schele de Vere Americanisms 212 The other meaning..makes waking snakes equivalent to ‘running away quickly’. 1877 J. Habberton Barton Exper. ix, He's been pretty high on whisky for two or three days,..and they say he's got snakes in his boots now. |
e. snakes in Iceland: used allusively (see
quot. 1758) of something posited only to be dismissed as non-existent.
| [1758 tr. N. Horrebow's Natural Hist. Iceland lxxii. 91 No snakes of any kind are to be met with throughout the whole island.] 1791 Boswell Life of Johnson II. 220 Johnson had said that he could repeat a complete chapter of ‘The Natural History of Iceland’, from the Danish of Horrebow, the whole of which was exactly thus:—‘Chap. lxxii. Concerning Snakes. There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island’. 1906 Spectator 5 May 716/1 ‘The Value of a Public School Education’ reminds one of the chapter on the snakes in Iceland... ‘So far as the school at large is concerned every Greek and Latin book should be destroyed.’ 1978 C. Sykes in R. Buckle U & Non-U Revisited 60 And what about hats? Of them it may be said as was said of snakes in The Natural History of Iceland. |
f. lower than a snake's belly: despicable, very low indeed.
Austral. slang.| 1932 L. Mann Flesh in Armour 191 ‘It was a dirty trick. He knew about me and her.’ ‘Dirty! Lower than a snake's belly.’ 1951 D. Cusack Say no to Death 20 He'd only have to take one look at Jan to be convinced in his honest old heart that his son was lower than a snake's belly. 1965 J. Beede They hosed them Out 175, I thought, ‘if I have to crawl to this illegitimate I'll get lower than a snake's belly.’ |
3. a. Applied to persons,
esp. with contemptuous or opprobrious force; in early use
freq. poor snake, a poor, needy, or humble person; a drudge.
| (a) 1590 Greene Mourning Garment Wks. (Grosart) IX. 193 The Gentleman..seeing such a poore snake to hinder his attempt, thought to checke him with a frowne. 1597 Tofte Laura (1880) p. xliii, Then Cupid worke that I (poore Snake in loue) This sdainfull Snake for to be kinde may moue. 1616 R. C. Times Whistle (1871) 71 A poore snake, whose best of meanes Is but to live on that he dayly gleanes. 1665 R. Brathwait Comment. Two Tales (1900) 42 These poor Snakes of hers were far from challenging any property in either. 1821 Scott Kenilw. ix, This Doctor Doboobie had a servant, a poor snake, whom he employed in trimming his furnace,..compounding his drugs [etc.]. |
| (b) 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iv. iii. 71, I see Loue hath made thee a tame snake. 1643 Baker Chron., Hen. III, 112 The Dragon once appeased or destroyed, these lesser Snakes will soone be trodden downe. 1833 M. Scott Tom Cringle vii, Don't provoke me to try, you yellow snake, you! 1897 Gunter Susan Turnbull xvi. 193 Do you remember a little toadying snake who used to be at school with us? |
b. U.S. and
Austral. slang. (See
quots.)
Cf. snake charmer, sense 12 a below.
| 1929 Bookman (U.S.) July 526/1 A Snake has many jobs. If he's a Hump-brakey he handles the cars rolled onto a series of tracks placed on a slight incline. The engine shoves them ‘over the hump’ and it is his job to handle the brakes. 1934 Amer. Speech IX. 73/2 Snake, switchman. His work requires him to crawl around and over cars, and he has a reputation for never hurrying. 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. xiv. 249 There are terms like..snake-charmers, snakes or lizards, railway platelayers. |
c. Austral. Mil. slang. (See
quot. 1945.)
| 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. viii. 160 Snakes, a sergeant. 1948 [see snake-pit 2]. 1951 E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 314 Baxter reckoned the officers and snakes are pinching our beer. |
4. Applied to various things resembling a snake in some respect.
† a. A long curl or tail attached to a wig.
Obs. b. The long flexible tube of a hookah.
c. A kind of firework burning with a snake-like movement or having a snaky form.
d. In various technical uses.
e. In miscellaneous
transf. senses.
| a. 1676 Dryden Ep. Etheredge's Man of Mode 24 His Sword-knot this, his Crevat this design'd; And this the yard long Snake he twirls behind. 1728 Swift On Five Ladies at Sot's Hole 34 Misc. 1735 V. 456 We who wear our Wigs With Fan-Tail and with Snake. |
| b. 1865 Reader No. 123. 508/2 The tube, or ‘snake’, as it is conventionally called, of a hookah. 1875 in W. Hamilton Poems Tobacco (1889) 121 Here's to the hookah with snake of five feet. |
| c. 1891 Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 509/1 When the lower portion [of the rocket] is burned, the upper..takes fire and sets off its garniture of stars, snakes, and other ornaments. |
| d. 1947 Britannica Bk. of Year 841/1 Snake, nickname of a device used during an advance to destroy wires and detonate mines. 1957 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 8 Jan. 5/3 A plumber's ‘snake’ has succeeded where a mixed pack of rats and mongooses failed. Ibid., The snakes are thin flexible cables used to clean or carry wires inside pipes. 1961 W. Vaughan-Thomas Anzio ix. 207 The Snake was a 300-foot tube of steel packed with TNT up to about fifty feet from the tank, which first towed the tube into battle and then swung around and pushed it out over a minefield. The crew..exploded the TNT by fire from their machine-guns. 1964 ‘E. McBain’ Ax v. 88 The plumber's snake had caught on one of the cross supports... Hawes reached up and shoved at the snake, coiling it back into the drawer. |
| e. 1891 Haggard Nada xviii, Chaka watched the long black snake of men winding..across the plain. 1894 M. Dyan Man's Keeping iv. (1899) 40 The floor was strewn with scraps of torn lace, curling snakes of ribbon. 1896 F. A. Steel Face Waters iii. iv, That snake of fire flashing to the powder magazine. |
f. Econ. A narrow range of fluctuation in rates of exchange, agreed to by certain member countries of the EEC (see
quot. 1973). Hence
snake in the tunnel: this range in relation to a wider range of fluctuation agreed in the foreign exchange markets.
| 1972 Economist 11 Mar. 87/1 Europe's currencies will try to be held inside the celebrated ‘snake’ wriggling within the overall 4.5 per cent dollar ‘tunnel’. 1972 Accountant 12 Oct. 451/2 It would take over the day-to-day running of the so-called ‘snake in the tunnel’ system of exchange rate margins which Britain opted out of when the {pstlg} was floated on June 23rd. 1973 Business Week 10 Mar. 37/3 In March 1972, the six charter members of the EEC and the three nations then awaiting membership agreed to keep their currencies trading within a narrower band against one another than they do in trading against the dollar. When set down on graph paper, the snake is the narrow EEC band and the tunnel the wider dollar band. Ibid., A year-old technique that is dubbed, whimsically enough, the ‘snake in the tunnel’. 1975 Sunday Tel. 11 May 24/4 There may be an agreement on the amount the pound should be devalued..followed by a return to the European currency arrangement (the ‘snake in the tunnel’). 1976 Times 14 Aug. 15/1 Finance ministers from the ‘snake countries’ (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden). 1979 Dædalus Winter 63 But the idea offers an opportunity..of avoiding the pitfalls of previous efforts that had aimed prematurely at stabilizing exchange rates in a European ‘snake’. 1980 T. Barling Goodbye Piccadilly viii. 155 An illuminated wallchart showed the present float of the European Money Snake. |
† 5. Some dicing game.
Obs.—0| 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xvi. (Roxb.) 68/1 A snake board vert; there on a snake depicted, with houses, birds and the like fixed on his back all proper... This is a bord whereon is playd the game of Snake. |
6. A kind of man-trap used in Ireland. ?
Obs.| 1835– in Eng. Dial. Dict. 1867 Chronicle 13 July 38/1 The ‘snakes’ in question are iron barbs, theoretically maintained as a terror to trespassers, but hardly existing in fact. |
7. A species of mediæval war-vessel.
Used as a rendering of
OE. snacc snack n.1 or
ON. snekkja.
| 1864 G. W. Dasent Jest & Earnest (1873) I. 275 He was left with only twelve snakes or war-galleys. 1880 Dawkins Early Man 396 These boats are to be looked upon as the precursors of the long ships, snakes, and sea-dragons. |
8. With capital initial. Applied to American Indians of various Shoshone groups,
esp. those of Oregon. Freq.
attrib.,
esp. as
Snake Indian.
| 1791 in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1794) III. 24 The tribes of Indians..were called..the Blackfeet tribe, the Snake Indians[, etc.]. 1805 P. Gass Jrnl. 22 Oct. (1807) xiv. 154 This..is the same river whose head waters we saw at the Snake nation. 1821 J. Fowler Jrnl. 24 Nov. (1898) 55 Last night on Counting them over find now four Hundred of the following nations—Ietans—Arrapohoes—Kiawa Padduce—Cheans—Snakes. 1831 Niles' Weekly Reg. IV. 265/2 They happily fell in with a small party of Snake Indians. 1843 T. Talbot Jrnl. 7 Sept. (1931) 45 The trappers prefer Snake Indians and Snake horses before any race of men or horses in the world. 1890 N. P. Langford Vigilante Days xiii. 161 [With] a band of Snakes.., we can run off two thousand of the best of those animals. 1920 S. M. Drumm in J. C. Luttig Jrnl. Expedition Upper Missouri 166 Snake Indians. This tribe was so generally known by this term as to almost obscure the family name of Shoshoni. 1938 M. Thompson High Trails Glacier Nat. Park 53 The Snake warriors got ready for an attack as soon as the moon should come up. 1940 Places to see in Wyoming p. xxiv/2 Shoshones were also referred to as Snakes or the Snake People. 1977 [see Paiute n. a]. |
II. attrib. and
Comb. 9. a. Simple
attrib., as
snake-bite,
snake-broth,
snake family,
snake-poison,
snake-skin, etc.
| 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 161/1 It is also one of their remedies for *snake-bites, but is no doubt inefficacious. c 1880 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 323 The population being dense, it is reasonable to expect that great mortality would occur from Snake bites every year. 1894 A. Robertson Nuggets, etc. 73 She knows as much about snake-bite as any doctor. |
| 1747 tr. Astruc's Fevers 81 Viper or *snake⁓broth is also powerfully deobstruent. |
| 1885 W. T. Hornaday 2 Yrs. Jungle xxxii. 388 The Dyak proceeded to roast the serpent,..preparatory to making a *snake curry. |
| c 1880 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 301 All the species of the *Snake family..have minute vestiges of hind limbs. |
| 1934 Discovery July 207/2 The Pasteur Institute in India, the Snake Institute at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and the Butantan ‘*Snake-farm’ near São Paulo, Brazil, are the headquarters of snake research and cure. 1979 United States 1980/81 (Penguin Travel Guides) 34 Traveling by car you can be flexible—making any number of stops at souvenir shops or snake farms. |
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 178 A single meal, with many of the *snake kind, seems to be the adventure of a season. |
| 1976 H. Kemelman Wednesday Rabbi got Wet xxxix. 226 As alien and outlandish as snails or *snakemeat or fried termites. |
| 1883 Science I. 260/2 It acted like *snake-poison, especially on birds. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 810 Snake-poison is a clear limpid fluid of a pale straw to yellow colour. |
| 1874 (title), Report on the Effects of Artificial Respiration..in Indian and Australian *Snake-Poisoning. 1965 R. & D. Morris Men & Snakes v. 106 Normally death by snake-poisoning is a prolonged and unpleasant business. |
| 1825 Scott Talism. xx, A straight broadsword, with a handle of box⁓wood, and a sheath covered with *snake-skin. 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 270 Each man..loosened his knife in its snake-skin sheath. |
| 1888 G. Meredith Poems (1898) II. 191 The *snake-slough sick of the snaky sin. |
| 1951 Whitby & Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 5) xx. 317 It is possible that other toxins of these soil bacteria are (like the *snake-venoms) primarily digestive ferments rather than aggressive mechanisms. |
| 1805 Southey Madoc ii. vi. 192 note, *Snake worship was common in America. 1883 Monier Williams Relig. Th. India I. xii. 319 Many..believe that snake-worship was the earliest form of religion prevalent among men. |
b. Attrib., with terms denoting persons or things connected with the catching, selling, exhibition, or worship of snakes, as
snake-boy,
snake-man,
snake-player;
snake-ceremony,
snake-temple, etc.
| 1873 Leland Egypt. Sketch-Bk. 60, I did quite a business with that *snake-boy, for I was interested in the study of his ware. |
| 1959 E. Tunis Indians ix. 128/1 Nearly all of the rituals had the same purpose: to cajole rain from the gods. The famous *Snake Ceremony had that object. |
| 1958 C. Achebe Things fall Apart iii. xxi. 159 His father was the priest of the *snake cult. |
| 1965 R. & D. Morris Men & Snakes iii. 67 It has been argued that the Egyptian contingent of the Jews in the Exodus may have been *snake cultists and Moses himself a kind of snake shaman. |
| 1836 [Miss Maitland] Lett. fr. Madras (1843) 36 Eight cobras and three other snakes.., and the *snake-men singing and playing..to them. |
| 1859 J. G. Wilkinson in Rawlinson Herodotus III. 151 note, The *snake-players of the coast of Barbary. |
| 1900 Outing June 305/2 Then, like a flash, the *Snake priests dart upon them grabbing in their hands all they can pick up. 1958 C. Achebe Things fall Apart iii. xxii. 165 One of them was Enoch, the son of the snake-priest who was believed to have killed and eaten the sacred python. |
| 1889 Cent. Mag. Aug. 507 The *snake-staff is used to handle snakes. |
| 1902 Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 81/1 Readers of that delightful novel, The World went very well Then, will remember Mr Brinjes of the fiery eye and the *snake-stick, who made every negro do his bidding. 1974 H. MacInnes Climb to Lost World vi. 97 We were all hypersensitive about the possibility of being stung or bitten, and kept our snake sticks handy. |
| 1891 Miss Gordon-Cumming 2 Yrs. Ceylon (1892) I. v. 127 There was a very ancient *snake-temple..near Jaffna. |
c. Appositive, as
snake-girdle,
snake-god,
snake-idol,
snake-king,
snake-lock, etc.
| 1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. ii. Magnificence 912 A Mantle..round about him ty'd With a Snake-girdle biting off her tail. 1805 Southey Madoc ii. vi. 192 A temple..where the Snake-Idol stood. Ibid. ii. vii. (heading), The Snake God. 1863 W. K. Kelly Curiosities Indo-Europ. Trad. & Folk-Lore i. 9 The bird, beast, and snake-gods. 1866 Conington æneid vi. 185 Her [Discord's] snake-locks hiss. 1871 Alabaster Wheel of Law 136 If a snake-king he will sink into the earth. 1901 Athenæum 13 Apr. 475/2 The influence of the snake-woman, gorgeous in beauty and irresistible in allurement. 1925 A. Evans Ring of Nestor 15 Besides the well-known Snake Goddess of the Temple Repository at Knossos, a series of other figures have now come to light showing this attribute. 1965 R. & D. Morris Men & Snakes ii. 28 The snake god Danh-gbi of Whydah, Dahomey. 1965 R. & D. Morris Men & Snakes ii. 49 A similar snake monster, Typhon, who in Greek mythology merges with Typhoeus, was said to be the cause of earthquakes as well as many springs. 1979 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts July 511/2 But in this region they also make paper caskets on bamboo frames which are used in festivals, especially for that of the snake-goddess, Bishahari. |
d. Used to designate things having the form of a snake, as
snake-arrow,
snake-bow,
snake-knot,
snake neck, etc.
| 1895 Haddon Evol. Art 25 A *snake-arrow which has lost all trace of its saurian ancestry. |
| c 1660 Wood Life (O.H.S.) I. 300 Lac'd bands and tassell or *snake-bow band-strings. |
| 1968 New Larousse Encycl. Mythol. (ed. 2) 484/1 (caption) *Snake bracelet from Dahomey. 1979 F. Morton Nervous Splendour (1980) ix. 89 He had long wanted to give Martha a gold snake bracelet, a status symbol. |
| a 1882 H. Kendall in Penguin Bk. Austral. Ballads (1964) 92 A hero..With a jumper and *snake-buckle belt on. 1971 P. D. James Shroud for Nightingale iv. 123 A schoolboy's belt..clasped with a snake buckle. 1978 M. Dickens An Open Book i. 6 Dining room lunch meant putting on a dress instead of the boy's shirt and flannel shorts and snake-buckle belt we wore at Chilworthy. |
| 1944 Blunden Cricket Country xi. 122 Wearing a revolver holster on a *snake-hook belt. |
| 1866 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. 327 The intertwining arabesques have everywhere a tendency to the regular *Snake-knot. |
| 1929 D. H. Lawrence Pansies 39 In the odd pattern, like *snake⁓marks on the sand It leaves its trail. 1968 K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 16 Two large [kangaroo] does..came in,..their tails dragging long snake marks in the dust. |
| 1965 R. & D. Morris Men & Snakes ii. 41 A *snake mask set with turquoises, the emblems of the god [sc. Quetzalcoatl]. |
| 1865 Kingsley Herew. ii, His long *snake neck and cruel visage wreathing about in search of prey. |
| 1625 in Rymer's Fœdera (1726) XVIII. 239 One Paire of Goulde Cupps with Covers, haveinge blewe *Snake Rings in the Topp of theire Covers. 1891 M. Williams Later Leaves v. 63 A gold snake ring. |
| 1922 Joyce Ulysses 715 *The snakespiral springs of the mattress being old. |
10. Objective and
obj. genitive, as
snake-bearer,
snake-catcher,
snake-charmer,
snake-eater,
snake-worshipper, etc.;
snake-charming,
snake-handling,
snake-killing;
snake-bearing,
snake-devouring,
snake-eating,
snake-handling adjs.| 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God 383 æsculapius was..called..the *Snake-bearer. |
| 1927 D. H. Lawrence Mornings in Mexico 162 The shoulders of the young, *snake-bearing men. |
| 1796 T. Twining Trav. India, etc. (1893) 164 The exhibition of the *snake-catchers near Benares. c 1880 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 306 The Cobras are the favourites of the snake-catchers. |
| 1836 [Miss Maitland] Lett. fr. Madras (1843) 36 Those *snake-charmers are most wonderful. 1891 Miss Gordon-Cumming 2 Yrs. Ceylon (1892) I. v. 129 Professional snake-charmers, who go about with a basket full of these wriggling reptiles for exhibition. |
| 1897 ‘Mark Twain’ Foll. Equat. xlii. 388 The girls went through a performance which represented *snake-charming. 1978 Amer. Poetry Rev. Nov./Dec. 25 Adam and eve because they had a snakecharming act. |
| 1621 Quarles Esther vii, Enuie did ope her *Snake-deuouring Iawes. 1835 J. Duncan Beetles 189 If it enjoyed an inferior degree of veneration to the snake-devouring Ibis [etc.]. |
| 1771 Phil. Trans. LXI. 56 This bird [the secretary⁓bird] was called a *snake-eater, by those who brought it from India. 1872 Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. 393/1 Such a creature as a snake-eater is man's best friend. |
| c 1880 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 307 A *snake-eating Snake. 1887 H. W. Daly Digging & Squatting 94 The reptile known as the Ophiophagus elaps or snake-eating cobra. |
| 1940 Sci. News Let. 17 Aug. 103/2 *Snake-handling religious cultists of Georgia are ‘all of a piece’ with followers of other cults who go to unusual lengths to show their faith or their access to supernatural powers. The same thing, with or without snake-handling, has been seen in various cultures and various times. 1973 R. L. Fox Alexander the Great iii. 45 Snake-handling is a known practice in the wilder sorts of Greek religion. |
| 1895 J. G. Millais Breath fr. Veldt (1899) 29 As for his *snake-killing exploits, I think he is a bit of a fraud. |
| 1880 G. C. M. Birdwood Indust. Arts India 83 The Nagas are a mythical type of the Scythic race of *snake-worshippers. |
11. With
pa. pples. or (
ppl.)
adjs., forming parasynthetic, similative, or instrumental combs., as
snake-bodied,
snake-bred,
snake-drawn,
snake-encircled,
snake-engirdled,
snake-eyed,
snake-green,
snake-haired,
snake-headed, etc.
Freq. in allusion to the snake-like hair of the Furies.
| 1842 Penny Cycl. XXII. 47/2 *Snake⁓bodied Batrachians. |
| 1587 Golding De Mornay xvii. (1592) 271 This Diuell.., whom he calleth ὀϕιογενῆ or ὀϕιόνεον, that is to say *Snakebread or Adderbread. |
| 1876 A. S. Murray Mythol. iii. (1877) 42 [Demeter] giving..to his son, Triptolemos, the seed of barley and her *snake-drawn car. |
| 1765 Goldsm. New Simile 32 His hand Fill'd with a *snake-encircled wand. 1873 Symonds Greek Poets vii. 227 Hound not Those blood-faced, snake-encircled women on me. |
| 1866 J. B. Rose Ovid's Met. 111 Tisiphone..*snake-engirdled issued forth in air. |
| 1896 Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. V. 168 *Snake-eyed..lizards differ from all their kin in having no movable eyelids. |
| 1948 C. S. Lewis in Punch 23 June 543/2 Sea-chances brought To her forest-silent And crimson-fruited And *snake-green island Her guests unsought. |
| 1625 K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis v. i. 330 From the barre The *snake-hayrd Sisters dragge the prisoner. 1634 T. Carew Cœlum Brit. 19 Thus I charme.. The Snake-heard Gorgon, and fierce Sagittar. 1921 W. de la Mare Veil 59 Snake-haired, snow-shouldered, pure as flame and dew,..Rises the Goddess. |
| 1856 Olmsted Slave States 65 These—long, lank, bony, *snake⁓headed, hairy, wild beasts. 1883 F. Day Indian Fish 33 The walking, or snake-headed fishes, Ophiocephalidæ, of India. |
| 1976 ‘G. Black’ Moon for Killers i. 7 He looked like a Hollywood top actor of the fifties..still almost *snake-hipped, with long, thrust-out legs. |
| 1954 G. Barker Vision of Beasts & Gods 39 The *snake-locked image of dream Hanging ahead. |
| 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. i, They are a square⁓headed and *snake-necked generation. c 1880 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 255 The Snake-necked Tortoises of Monte Video, Buenos Ayres, and Southern Brazil. |
| 1946 R. Graves Poems 1938–45 32 By noting that the *snake-tailed chthonian winds Were answerable to fate alone, not Zeus. |
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iii. 250 Come *snake-trest Sisters, come ye dismall Elves. 1894 O. Wilde Sphinx 28 What snaketressed fury fresh from Hell. |
| 1605 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iii. Law 428 Smiting the Waves with his *Snake-wanded wood. |
| 1682 N. O. Boileau's Lutrin i. 85 A corner'd Cap her *Snake-wigg'd Head did cover. |
12. a. Special combs.:
snake-bit(ten) a., (
a) bitten by a snake; (
b)
U.S. irremediably doomed to misfortune;
† snake-board (see sense 5);
snake-boat, a form of canoe used in the East (see
quot. 1882);
snake boot N. Amer., a boot with a high ankle worn for protection against snake-bites, or a fashion boot resembling this;
snake-box, (
a) a box or case for keeping snakes; (
b) a faro-box fraudulently made so that a slight projection called a snake warns the dealer of the approach of a particular card (
Cent. Dict.);
† snake-button, a snake-stone, adder-stone;
snake charmer Austral. slang (see
quots.);
snake-doctor, one who cures snake-bites;
snake eyes, (
a)
U.S. slang, tapioca; (
b)
N. Amer. slang, a throw of two ones with a pair of dice; also
fig., bad luck;
† snake-foot a. (rendering L.
anguipes), snake-footed, as a poetic epithet of giants;
snake-headed a. slang (see
quot. 1941);
snake hips, (
a) very narrow hips; (
b) the name of a popular dance (see
quot. 1970); so
snake-hip attrib.;
snake juice slang (chiefly
Austral.), whisky; also
loosely, any alcoholic drink;
snake-line (see
quot.);
snake oil, a quack remedy or panacea; also
fig.;
freq. attrib.,
esp. as
snake-oil salesman;
snake-piece (see
quot.);
snake-pill, a pill used as a remedy for snake-bite;
snake poison U.S. and
Austral. slang, whisky;
† snake-proof a., proof against snakes; in
quot. fig.;
snake rail fence N. Amer. = snake-fence;
snake room Canad. (see
quot. 1912);
snake-spit dial. (see
quot.);
snake story,
yarn, an incredible tale about a snake,
esp. in regard to its great length or size.
| 1807 Gass Jrnl. 20 One of our people got *snake bitten but not dangerously. 1938 M. K. Rawlings Yearling xiv. 149 He sobbed, ‘Pa—He's snake-bit.’ 1942 W. Faulkner Go down, Moses 111 Ah'm snakebit and de pizen cant hawm me. 1957 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 18 Nov. 14/1 It was another long afternoon Saturday at Scott Stadium for Coach Ben Martin, his assistants and his ‘snake-bitten’ football players as they fell before South Carolina, 13–0. Ibid., Commenting on the game last Saturday afternoon Martin said: ‘We're just snake-bit that's all there is to it.’ Snake-bit is a term used by coaches when referring to a team which never seems to have a break in its favor. 1965 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 10 June (1970) 283 From the first moment of the day we were ‘snake-bit’—everything went wrong. 1976 Columbus (Montana) News (Joliet Suppl.) 17 June 2/3 We managed to get back to the house, not snake-bitten and not smelling too much like a skunk. |
| 1882 Annandale Imperial Dict., Pamban-manche, a canoe of great length, used on the Malabar coast... Called also Serpent-boat, *Snake-boat. 1900 Daily News 14 Feb. 4/4 They have fifteen steam launches and a great number of snake boats at their service. |
| 1965 *Snakeboot [see kinky n.]. 1972 R. Reid Canadian Style (1973) iv. 144 ‘Say, what is, or are, galoshes?’ ‘Like rubber snake boots, but they buckle or zip up the front.’ |
| 1886 P. Robinson Teetotum Trees 92 Very much like the showman's *snake-box in which each reptile had swallowed the one next to it in size. |
| 1699 E. Lhwyd in Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 98 The *Snake-button is the same described..in Camden, by the Name of Adder⁓beads. |
| 1937 A. W. Upfield Mr Jelly's Business 16 ‘And what are the *Snake Charmers?’ ‘They are the permanent-way men.’ 1969 P. A. Smith Folklore Austral. Railwaymen 279 Fettlers are invariably referred to as ‘snake charmers’. |
| 1800 Asiatic Ann. Reg. 325 A specimen was brought me by a *snake-doctor. |
| 1918 L. E. Ruggles Navy Explained 20 Tapioca is ‘*snake eyes’. 1929 M. A. Gill Underworld Slang 11/2 Snake eyes, aces up on the dice. 1935 Jrnl. Abnormal Psychol. XXX. 364 Snake eyes, tapioca. 1964 A. Wykes Gambling vi. 134 Modern craps players use..slang for various combinations of two dice: ‘snake eyes’ for Two, [etc.]. 1972 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 30 July 12/3 But this time Baychimo's annual throw of the dice came up ‘snake-eyes’, and the ice closed about trapping her forever. 1978 R. Moore Big Paddle iv. 88 Cliff..let the dice go... He didn't have to look to know they'd come up snake eyes. 1978 G. Vidal Kalki vi. 138 It's like throwing dice. Let's just hope it won't be snake eyes for Jim Kelly. |
| 1598 Chapman Hero & Leander vi. 46 To *snake-foote Boreas next she doth remoue. |
| 1920 B. Cronin Timber Wolves viii. 137 Anyhow, they's no need to get *snake-headed about it. 1941 S. J. Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 68 Snake⁓headed, angry, vindictive. |
| 1932 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 20 Apr. 4/3 There is a distinct class clash between the Harlem intelligentsia and *snake-hip dancers and chanters of hot-cha-cha and skiddle-de-scow in the black and tan auberges. 1977 Melody Maker 26 Mar. 43/2 The biggest sensation of all..was the ‘snake-hip’ dancer, Bessie Dudley, waggling her bottom, clad in black satin knickers. |
| 1933 Fortune Aug. 48/1 Dancers like the gelatinous ‘*Snake Hips’ Tucker. 1956 G. P. Kurath in A. F. C. Wallace Men & Cultures (1960) 153 Restraints were shaken off..in an epidemic of angular, foot-twisting gyrations—the Charleston, Snake Hips, Susie-Q, and Truckin'. 1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 106 Snake hips, a Baltimore- and New York-oriented jazz dance. 1977 N. Slater Crossfire iii. 62 The fellows..all seem to have snake-hips, painfully tight trousers and platform shoes. |
| 1890 Pall Mall G. 3 Sept. 3/2 This whisky, or *snake juice, as bushmen often call the hell-broth prepared for them. 1904 E. S. Emerson Shanty Entertainment 70 Then he started them on snake-juice, known as Boot and Blacking Rum. 1965 M. McIntyre Place of Quiet Waters xii. 224, I wonder if that snake juice is fit to drink. 1973 R. Robinson Drift of Things 290 Broke into Eric's hut, threw the ‘pickled’ specimens out of the jars, and drank the methylated spirits. That must have been the real ‘Snake-Juice’. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2229 *Snake-line, line used in worming a rope. |
| 1927 S. V. Benét John Brown's Body 294 Crooked creatures of a thousand dubious trades,..sellers of *snake-oil balm and lucky rings. 1946 E. O'Neill Iceman Cometh i. 90 I'll bet he's standing on a street corner in hell right now, making suckers of the damned, telling them there's nothing like snake oil for a bad burn. 1961 Washington Post 10 May a4/2 Advertisers who try to ‘lubricate the wheels of our economy with snake oil’. 1976 Listener 25 Mar. 382/1 Jimmy Savile has always had more chutzpah than a wagonload of snake-oil salesmen. 1977 Rolling Stone 21 Apr. 66/2 It was, after all, the Jew who was the perennial doubter, the archetypal outsider, longing for redemption while dismissing the claims of would-be redeemers as so much snake oil. 1978 Times 21 Jan. 12/7 The pseudo-graphic industry..are snake-oil salesmen deceiving the public. |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Snake-pieces,..stout props, placed obliquely to the timbers of whalers, to sustain the shock of icebergs. |
| 1800 Asiatic Ann. Reg. III. 125/1 So much I can say for the arsenic *snake pills, the only other remedy recommended. |
| 1890 L. D'Oyle Notches 4 It was variously called for as tangle-foot, *snake-poison,..chain-lightning, or other fancy name, but it was never called for as whisky. 1947 K. Tennant Lost Haven iv. 66 If Bee-Bonnet ever again wants me to sample his snake poison, I'll pour it on him and set it alight. |
| 1609 Dekker Gull's Horn-bk. Wks. (Grosart) II. 203, I am *Snake-proof: and..it is impossible for you to quench..my Alpine-resolution. |
| 1889 B. Harte Cressy ii. 38 Mr. McKinstry's ‘*snake rail’ fence was already discernible in the lighter opening of the woods. 1958 H. Symons Fences 48 One of the early Canadian fences most popular in the east was the snake rail fence. |
| 1912 J. Sandilands Western Canad. Dict. 42/1 *Snake-room , a side room of a basement where saloon-keepers accommodate doped or drunken people until they recover their senses, presumably a place where they ‘see snakes’. 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 29 Oct. 15/2 ‘Tommy’ was one of a bunch who were swapping stories recently in the snake room. 1975 F. Kennedy Alberta was my Beat vi. 73 All adjourned to the ‘snake room’ in the basement. |
| 1823 E. Moor Suffolk Words, *Snake-spit, small masses of delicately white frothy matter, seen on leaves of weeds or wild flowers..; popularly believed to be the saliva of snakes. |
| 1826 Virginia Herald (Fredericksburg) 6 Sept. 3/2 The New-York Spectator will probably class this with the *Snake stories of the day. 1867 Harper's Mag. Aug. 281/3 We told snake and fish stories. 1885 W. T. Hornaday 2 Yrs. in Jungle xxvii. 331 All the big snake stories I had heard. |
| 1891 E. Kinglake Australian 97 If anyone told a good anecdote with a dash of the *snake yarn about it. |
b. In the specific or popular names of animals, birds, fishes, etc. (see
quots.).
snake doctor U.S. = dragon-fly or
hellgrammite;
snake feeder U.S. = prec. A large number of combs. of this type are given in recent American Dicts., as
snake-blenny,
snake-hag (
= lizard),
snake-mackerel, etc.
| 1881 Day Fishes Gt. Brit. I. 330 Snedden... At St. Ives the fishermen term the adult *snake-bait, and the young naked⁓bait. |
| 1869–73 Cassell's Bk. Birds II. 49 About noon the *Snake Buzzard [Circaëtus gallicus] appears upon the river banks. |
| 1863 S. L. J. Life in South I. vii. 93 The cat-bird, or *snake-charmer. |
| 1869–73 Cassell's Bk. Birds IV. 91 The *Snake Cranes (Dicholophus) constitute a group of remarkable birds. |
| a 1883 G. W. Bagby Old Virginia Gentleman (1910) 92 [The water is] full of all manner of nasty and confounded ‘mud-kittens’, ‘snap'n turtles’, and *snake doctors. 1948 Field & Stream July 42/2 Various stages of the dobson are known as..flip-flaps, snake doctors. 1978 Amer. Speech LIII. 201 The flora and fauna terms include..snake feeder (listed as the common name for the dragon⁓fly, snake doctor being listed as ‘slightly known’). |
| 1668 Charleton Onomast. 113 Hoactzin,..the *Snake-eater of America. 1829 Griffith tr. Cuvier VI. 68 The Snake-Eater, or Secretary (Serpentarius). |
| 1803 Shaw Gen. Zool. IV. i. 23 *Snake Eel. Anguilla Serpens. 1866 Carpenter's Zoology II. 75 The Ophisurus, or Snake Eel (so called from its strong resemblance to a serpent) of the Mediterranean. |
| 1861 Trans. Illinois Agric. Soc. IV. 341 A particular species of dragon-fly, or *snake-feeder, as it is absurdly called in this country. 1904 G. S. Porter Freckles xiv. 289 He shifted restlessly, and the movement sent the snake⁓feeders skimming. 1949 H. Kurath Word Geogr. Eastern U.S. 14/1 The line of demarkation over against the Midland snake feeder is remarkably clear and sharp. |
| 1668 W. Charleton Onomast. 42 Serpentisuga,..the *Snake-fly. 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxiii. (1818) II. 309 A kind of snake-fly (Raphidia Mantispa, F.) is said to walk upon its knees. 1882 Cassell's Nat. Hist. VI. 15 The Snake-flies, or Camel-flies (Raphidiæ) form a small genus. |
| 1781 Latham Gen. Synop. Birds I. i. 61 Swallow-tailed Falcon..inhabits Carolina in the summer months; where it is called *Snake-hawk. 1863 Russell Diary North & S. I. 216 The young gentleman was good enough to bring over a snake hawk he had shot for me. |
| 1816 Keatinge Trav. (1817) I. 344 They have a remarkably swift..race of horses, which, from the lankness of their bodies,..are called *snake-horses. |
| 1872 Coues N. Amer. Birds 189 Geococcyx,..Road Runner. *Snake Killer. |
| 1902 P. Fountain Mountains & Forests South America iv. 89 A hawk seen on all parts of the river [Purus] was a beautiful black and white one, known in the States as the *snake-kite, on account of its preying largely on those reptiles. |
| 1802 Shaw Gen. Zool. III. i. 305 *Snake-Lizards, with extremely long bodies, and short legs. 1866 Carpenter's Zoology I. 564 The Four-toed Saurophis, or Snake-Lizard, which is a native of the southern part of Africa. |
| 1863 S. L. J. Life in South I. vi. 87 That's a *snake⁓maid [= dragon-fly]. |
| 1883 J. Curtis Farm Insects vii. 201 Linnæus gave them the generic name of Julus; and from the typical species resembling snakes in miniature,..I have applied to them the English appellation of *snake-millipedes. 1900 Davis tr. Bos' Agric. Zool. (ed. 2) 195 The Snake Millipedes..or ‘False Wireworms’. |
| c 1880 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 200 The Darters (Plotus)..are also called *Snake-necks, from the habit they have of swimming with the body submerged and only the neck exposed above the water. |
| 1713 Petiver Aquat. Anim. Amboinæ Tab. 16/32 Solen Anguinus,..*Snake pipes. |
| 1804 Shaw Gen. Zool. V. ii. 453 *Snake Pipefish,..Syngnathus Ophidion. 1883 Day Fishes Gt. Brit. II. 261 Ocean pipe-fish and snake pipe-fish. |
| 1868 Darwin Var. Anim. & Plants xv. II. 87 Some *snake⁓rats (Mus alexandrinus) escaped in the Zoological Gardens. |
| 1713 Petiver Aquat. Anim. Amboinæ Tab. xii, Serpentulus,..*Snake-shell. |
| 1800 Shaw Gen. Zool. III. i. 72 *Snake Tortoise. Testudo Serpentina. |
c. In the names of plants, etc. (see
quots.).
snake-locked anemone = opelet;
snake plant, (
a) (see
quot. 1883); (
b)
= mother-in-law's tongue s.v. mother-in-law.
Various others occurring in dialect or local use are recorded in the
Eng. Dial. Dict. and recent American Dicts.
| 1846–50 A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. 275 Cereus flagelliformis,..*Snake Cactus. |
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 652/1 Kunthia, a genus of palms..of New Grenada, where the natives call it Cana de la Vibora, i.e. *Snake Cane, from the resemblance of its stem to a snake. |
| 1882 Garden 1 Apr. 219/3 Packets of seed of various plants, including Water Melons and *Snake Cucumbers. |
| 1902 Cornish Naturalist Thames 170 The fritillaries, the chequered red or pale ‘*snake-flowers’, are grass-lovers. |
| 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict. ii. s.v., *Snake⁓gourd. 1857 Henfrey Bot. §479 The Snake-gourd, Trichosanthes anguina, is eaten in India. 1901 Bailey & Miller Cycl. Amer. Horticult. II. 874 The long curved forms [of Lagenaria vulgaris] are often called snake gourds in this country. |
| 1883 A. K. Green (Mrs. Rohlfs) Hand & Ring i, The ground is marshy and covered with *snake grass. |
| 1853 P. H. Gosse Naturalist's Rambles Devon. Coast iv. 96 The *Snake-locked Anemone..is by no means common. 1928 Russell & Yonge Seas 37 Especially common in the pools is the ‘Snake-locked anemone’. 1979 J. D. & J. J. George Marine Life 32/1 Anemonia sulcata..(snakelocks anemone). A species with many sinuous tentacles. |
| 1845 Lindley Sch. Bot. 154 Lycopodium clavatum (Clubmoss, *Snakemoss). |
| 1845–50 A. H. Lincoln Lect. Bot. App. 144 Pogonia ophioglossoides (*snake-mouth arethusa). |
| 1846 Lindley Veg. Kingd. 383 The nut of a Demerara tree, called the *Snake-nut, in consequence of the large embryo, resembling a snake coiled up. 1849 Balfour Man. Bot. §807 Ophiocaryon paradoxum, is the Snake-nut-tree of Demerara. |
| 1885 C. G. W. Lock Workshop Rec. Ser. iv. 277/1 The best variety is known under several names, as those of the *snake osier [etc.]. |
| 1883 W. Robinson Eng. Flower Garden (1901) 436 Arum Dracunculus (Dragons, *Snake Plant). 1946 M. Free All about House Plants xviii. 271 The common Snake-plant..is one of the most inelegant of all plants, with its stiff, 30-inch, upright leaves. 1973 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 21 Nov. 24/1 He had poured his heart out to a hardy sansevieria, otherwise known as snake plant or mother-in-law's tongues. |
| 1842 Penny Cycl. XXIII. 152/2 Strychnos colubrina, Snake-wood, or *Snake-poison Nut, is a climbing plant with simple tendrils. |
| 1832 Don Gen. Syst. Gard. & Bot. II. 60/1 Ophispermum Sinense.., China *Snake-seed. 1866 Treas. Bot. 815/2 The fruits [of Ophiocaryon paradoxum] are often sent to this country as curiosities, under the name of Snake-nuts or Snake-seeds. |
| 1880 Jefferies Gt. Estate 87 The *snake-skin willow, so called because it sheds its bark. |
| 1632 Sherwood, Snake-weede, *snake-wort, bistorte. |
13. In collocations with snake's, chiefly in plant-names (see
quots.).
Cf. also the
Eng. Dial. Dict. and recent American Dicts.
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 1067/2 *Snake's-beard, Ophiopogon. |
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal 659 Buglosse..is called..in English vipers Buglosse, *Snakes Buglosse. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Ail Sauvage, Wild Garlicke,..Stags Garlicke, *Snakes Garlicke. |
| 1887 G. Nicholson Dict. Gard. III. 447 *Snake's-mouth Orchis... Pogonia ophioglossum. |
| c 1675 R. Cromwell Let. in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1898) XIII. 93 He hath sent of the *Snakes root of Verginnia..as the best of cordialls. |
| 1879 Folk-Lore Rec. II. 81 The..*snake's-spit, or wood⁓sear of England and Scotland,..is a froth discharged by the young froghoppers. |
| 1863 Prior Plant-n. s.v., *Snake's tail, from its cylindrical spikes, Rottböllia incurvata. 1866 Treas. Bot. 1067/2 Snake's-tail, Lepturus incurvus. |
| Ibid., *Snake's-tongue, Lygodium. 1902 Bailey & Miller Cycl. Amer. Hort. IV. 1673 Snake's Tongue, Ophioglossum. |
▪ II. snake, v.1 (
sneɪk)
[f. snake n.] I. 1. a. trans. To twist or wind (hair) into the form of a snake.
rare—1.
| 1653 J. Hall Parad. 114 Who would not be sooner smitten with Tresses curiously snak't. |
b. Naut. (See
quot. 1846.)
| 1815 Burney Falconer's Dict. Marine 487/1 Snaking the Stays, or Ropes on the Quarters, instead of Netting. 1840 Adm. Winnington-Ingram Hearts of Oak (1889) 27 Put ratlines on the backstays, snaked the stays, slung the topmasts with chain. 1846 A. Young Naut. Dict. 288 Snake, to pass small stuff across a seizing at the outer turns by way of finish. To attach lengths of rope between two stays or backstays. |
c. To move, stretch out, (the head, etc.) after the manner of a snake. Also
refl.| 1887 D. C. Murray & Herman Traveller Returns i, The girl snaking her head hither and thither in the eagerness of her regard. 1890 L. D'Oyle Notches 60 Then falling down full-length upon the ground he began to crawl, or rather ‘snake’ himself, up to the brow. |
d. To cover or decorate
with spirals or coils.
| 1887 Sporting Life 22 June 6/5 The portico pillars of the Mansion House were ‘snaked’ with richly coloured illumination lamps. |
2. a. intr. To move in a creeping, crawling, or stealthy manner suggestive of the movements of a snake.
| 1848 in Bartlett Dict. Amer. 315 There's some fellows who..are snaking up to the Grand Jury, on their bellies in the grass, kind of trying to hear what the Jury are talking about. 1848 Lowell Biglow P. Ser. i. ix, Pomp he snaked up behin', An' creepin' grad'lly close tu,..grabbed my leg. 1893 Capt. King Foes in Ambush 187 Unseen Indians would come skulking, spying, ‘snaking’ upon their refuge. |
| fig. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. viii. 57, I b'lieve..I could get along and snake through, even if justices were more particular than they is. |
b. spec. (see
quots.).
| 1875 Encycl. Brit. II. 378 An arrow is said to snake when it works itself under the grass. 1876 Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. 391/1 Projectiles subject to this influence [i.e. spiral motion of rotation round their original direction] are technically said to snake. |
3. To wind, twist, curve, etc., in a snake-like manner.
| 1875 I. L. Bird Sandwich Isl. xxi. 302 The track..snaked along the narrow tops of spine-like ridges. 1888 Clark Russell Death Ship II. 206 The hacked ends of the shrouds snaking out into the hollows and swellings over the side. 1902 A. E. W. Mason Four Feathers (1903) 2 A coil of white smoke from a train snaked rapidly in and out amongst the trees. |
4. trans. To make (one's way) in a sinuous or creeping manner.
| 1879 I. L. Bird Rocky Mountains 5 The monster train snaked its way upwards. 1894 D. C. Murray Making of Novelist 28 One by one we snaked our way..into the hole. |
II. 5. a. U.S. To drag, pull, or draw;
spec. in
Lumbering, to haul (logs) along the ground length-wise by means of chains or ropes.
| 1829 T. Flint George Mason ii. 21 It was so contrived that..logs..could be drawn, or, as it is technically phrased, snaked into church. 1848 Bartlett Dict. Amer. 316 A farmer in clearing land, attaches a chain to a stump or log, whereby to draw it out; this he calls, snaking it out. 1878 Lumberman's Gaz. 26 Jan., Where the haul is very short, and so close to the streams that the logs are ‘snaked’ in without being skidded. 1883 Harper's Mag. Jan. 206/1 The..cattle snake the log endwise down the hill. |
| fig. 1833 [Seba Smith] Lett. of J. Downing (1835) 26 We snaked him out of that scrape as slick as a whistle. 1883 Philad. Times No. 2810. 4 Some legal loophole..through which an evasion or extension can be successfully snaked. |
b. transf. To drag or pull forcibly or quickly.
| 1856 M. Thomson Plu-ri-bus-tah xii. 135 First he pulled the pillow-case off. Then he snaked the stars and stripes off. 1897 F. T. Bullen Cruise ‘Cachalot’ xxvii. (1900) 359 One of the small London tugs..would have snaked those monsters along at the rate of three of four knots an hour. 1899 ― Log Sea-waif 341 How we did snake the hatches off. |
6. U.S. slang. To beat, thrash.
| a 1859 in Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 421 Any gal like me..ought to be able to snake any man of her heft. |
7. U.S. To take
out surreptitiously.
| 1862 Lowell Biglow P. Ser. ii. iii, Ef You snake one link out here, one there, how much on 't ud be lef'? |
▪ III. snake, v.2 dial. and
U.S. Also
snaik.
[prob. a. ON. snaka (Norw. snaka, MDa. snage) to go snuffing or searching about; cf. G. dial. schnaken (schnacken) to creep.] 1. intr. To skulk or sneak.
| 1818 Hogg Brownie of Bodsbeck vii, Some o' thae beasts that gang snaiken about i' the derk. 1882 Jamieson's Sc. Dict., To snaik, to sneak, in walking, working, or speaking. 1894 Hall Caine Manxman iv. xvii, Young Ross snaked out of the house same as a cur. |
2. trans. To get or obtain (a thing) furtively or surreptitiously; to steal or pilfer; to cheat (a person)
out of something. Also, to cheat (someone) at cards.
| a 1861 T. Winthrop John Brent (1862) xvi. 183 They snaked me to the figure of a slug at their cheatin' game. 1881– in dial. texts and glossaries (Yorks., Lancs., Notts., Somerset). 1886 Kipling Departm. Ditties (ed. 2) 36 You will find excuse to snake Three days' ‘casual’ on the bust. 1921 T. Dreiser Let. 2 Jan. (1959) I. 333 Start the ball and if I snake the forty thousand..you get five thousand. 1959 [see shaft n.2 10 c]. 1977 Amer. Speech 1975 L. 66 Snake,..steal (one's date) ‘Carol tried to snake my date last night’. |