snake
(snāk)n.1. Any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous squamate reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (or Ophidia), having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and flexible jaws.
2. A treacherous person. Also called snake in the grass.
3. A long, highly flexible metal wire or coil used for cleaning drains. Also called plumber's snake.
v. snaked, snak·ing, snakes
v.tr.1. To drag or pull lengthwise, especially to drag with a rope or chain.
2. To pull with quick jerks.
3. To move in a sinuous or gliding manner: tried to snake the rope along the ledge.
v.intr. To move with a sinuous motion: The river snakes through the valley.
[Middle English, from Old English snaca.]
Snake 1
(snāk)
Snake 2
(snāk)American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Snakes
1. an abnormal fear of snakes. Also ophiophobia.
2. herpetophobia.
a description of snakes. — ophiographic, adj.
the worship of snakes. — ophiolater, n.
the branch of herpetology that studies snakes. Also called snakeology, snakology. — ophiologist, n. — ophiologic, ophiological, adj.
a form of divination involving snakes.
ophiology.
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.