I. ˈsnāk, dial ˈsnek noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English snaca; akin to Middle Low German snake, Old Norse snākr, snōkr snake, snigill snail — more at snail
1.
a. : any of numerous oviparous or ovoviviparous scaly limbless reptiles (suborder Serpentes) with a very elongated body that are first known from the Cretaceous and are presumably derived from lacertilian ancestors, that have the branches of the mandible usually connected in front by an elastic ligament so that the mouth is very distensible, the tongue forked, the tympanum of the ear lacking, the eye permanently covered by a transparent membrane, and one lung usually reduced or absent, that in many forms produce venoms in modified salivary glands, that are usually predaceous in habit killing their prey by constriction or by injection of venom through hollow or grooved fangs and swallowing it whole, and that are often valuable destroyers of rodents and other vermin
b. : an elongated limbless lizard or amphibian — not used technically; see glass snake
c. : any of various vigorous voracious elongated fishes (as a pike, a pickerel, or a barracuda) — not used technically
2.
a. obsolete : a poor, miserable, or cringing person
b. : a worthless contemptible fellow ; especially : a perfidious ingrate
3. : something felt to resemble a snake: as
a. obsolete : a tail, curl, or braid of a wig
b. : serpent 6
c. : the flexible stem of a hookah
d. : an arrow buried flat in the grass
e. : plumber's snake
f. : fish tape
g. : a crooked surface flaw in rolled metal
h. : a baseball curve
i. : an explosive charge in a very long narrow metal case that can be pushed into a minefield by a tank and then exploded to clear a path sometimes of several hundred feet through the field
4. usually capitalized
a. : any of various Shoshonean peoples especially of the northern Shoshoni, northern Paiute, and Comanche
b. : a member of such people
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
transitive verb
1. : to wind (as one's way, one's body in crawling) so as to suggest a snake or snakelike movement : move sinuously
a long wagon train snaking its way along the slope
2.
a. : worm 6
b. : to bind (as backstays) together with small stuff
3.
a. : to move (something) by dragging : drag forcibly
snaking logs down the hill with a chain hitch
snaked out the timber over an old tote road
also : to move (logs) by skidding
b. chiefly dialect : steal , swipe
4. : to flaw (a log) in sawing into board by making a wavy cut
intransitive verb
1.
a. : to crawl or move silently, secretly, or sinuously
snaking softly through the brush
b. : to twist in the manner of a snake : progress in a spiral
a narrow trail that snakes between the trees
c. dialect England : to move stealthily : sneak
2. of an arrow : to bury itself in the grass in falling