# snail
## English
### Etymology

From the Middle English snaile, snayle, from the Old English sneġel, from Proto-Germanic *snagilaz. Cognate with Low German Snagel, Snâel, Snâl (“snail”), German Schnegel (“slug”). Compare also Old Norse snigill, from Proto-Germanic *snigilaz.

### Pronunciation

* enPR: snāl
* IPA: /sneɪl/, [sn̥eɪ̯ɫ]
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪl

### Noun

snail (plural snails)
* Any of very many animals (either hermaphroditic or nonhermaphroditic), of the class Gastropoda, having a coiled shell.
** 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […] ’
* (informal, by extension) A slow person; a sluggard.
* (engineering) A spiral cam, or a flat piece of metal of spirally curved outline, used for giving motion to, or changing the position of, another part, as the hammer tail of a striking clock.
* (military, historical) A tortoise or testudo; a movable roof or shed to protect besiegers.
* The pod of the snail clover.
* (rail transport) A locomotive with a prime mover but no traction motors, used to provide extra electrical power to another locomotive.

#### Synonyms

* (animal): dodman, hodmandod (East Anglia, dialectal)

#### Derived terms

* achatine snail (Achatinidae spp.)
* African snail (Achatina spp.)
* agate snail (Achatina achatina)
* amber snail, ambersnail (Succineidae spp.)
* apple snail (Ampullariidae spp.)
* Australian snail (Lenameria dispar)
* awl snail (Subulinidae spp.)
* Badwater snail (Angustassiminea infima)
* bonnet snail (Cassidae spp.)
* boulder snail
* bristle snail (Austrochloritis spp.)
* brown-lipped snail
* brown snail (Helix aspersa)
* bubble snail
* bubble snail (Bulla spp.)
* Burgundy snail (Helix pomatia)
* carrier snail (Xenophora spp.)
* cinnamon snail
* cone snail (Conidae spp.)
* decollate snail (Rumina decollata)
* dew snail
* domed land snail (Zospeum tholussum)
* door snail (Clausiliidae spp.)
* ear snail (Ellobiidae spp.)
* edible snail (Helix pomatia)
* emerald green snail (Papustyla pulcherrima)
* Finger Snail
* flying snail
* giant snail (Achatina spp.)
* glass snail (Vitrinidae spp.)
* green snail (Turbo marmoratus; Helix aperta)
* grove snail (Cepaea nemoralis)
* harp snail (Harpidae spp.)
* helmet snail (Cassidae spp.)
* housesnail
* Japanese snail (Viviparus malleatus)
* land snail (Caenogastropoda spp. etc.)
* Lister's river snail (Viviparus contectus)
* looping snail (Truncatella spp.)
* milk snail (Otala lactea, syn. Helix lactea)
* moon snail (Naticidae spp.)
* Moorean viviparous tree snail (†Partula mirabilis)
* mud snail (Corbulidae spp.; Lymnaea truncatella)
* murex snail (Muricidae spp.)
* mystery snail (Viviparidae spp.)
* Newcomb's snail (Erinna newcombi)
* olive snail (Oliviae spp.)
* palm-leaf snail (Assimineidae spp.)
* pebblesnail (Truncatelloidea spp.)
* Polynesian tree snail (Partula spp., Somoana spp.)
* pond snail (Lymnaeidae spp.)
* purple storm snail (Janthina janthina)
* rack and snail
* ramshorn snail (Planorbidae spp.)
* river snail (Viviparidae spp.)
* rocksnail (Leptoxis spp.)
* Roman snail (Helix pomatia}
* scaly-foot snail (Chrysomallon squamiferum)
* sea snail (Gastropoda spp.)
* shoulderband snail (Helminthoglypta spp.)
* slow as a snail
* slugsnail (Stylommatophora spp.)
* snail butter
* snail darter (Percina tanasi)
* snail fever
* snailfish (Liparidae spp.)
* snail king
* snail kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis)
* snail mail, snail-mail
* snail-sense feminism
* snail's pace, snail pace, snail-paced
* snail syrup
* snail trail
* snail trefoil (Medicago scutellata)
* snail-wheel
* strawberry snail (Trochulus striolatus)
* top snail (Trochidae spp. etc.)
* tulip snail (Fasciolaria spp.)
* turban snail (Turbinidae spp.)
* Utah roundmouth snail (Valvata utahensis)
* valve snail (Valvata spp.)
* violet snail (Janthina janthina)
* volcano snail (Chrysomallon squamiferum)
* water snail
* white-lipped snail (Cepaea hortensis)
* white snail (Helix pomatia; Helix pisana)
* whorl snail (Vertiginidae spp.)
* wing snail (Pteropoda spp.)
* wood snail (Helix nemoralis)
* zombie snail

#### See also

* heliciculture
* slug

### Verb

snail (third-person singular simple present snails, present participle snailing, simple past and past participle snailed)
* To move or travel very slowly.
    The cars were snailing along the motorway during the rush hour.

### Anagrams

* Nilas, Sinla, nails, lains, Lians, sinal, Nails, salin, Lains, Aslin, nilas, anils, slain