snake
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: snāk
ipa: /sneɪk/
rhymes: -eɪk
Forms: form: snakes
form: snek
Etymology: From Middle English snake, from Old English snaca (“snake, serpent, reptile”), from Proto-West Germanic *snakō (“slider, snake”), from *snakan (“to creep, slide”), related to Old High German snahhan (“to sneak, slide”). Compare also Proto-Germanic *snēkô (“creeper, crawler”).
Cognate with German Low German Snake, Snaak (“snake”), dialectal German Schnake (“adder”), Danish snog (“grass snake”), Swedish snok (“grass snake”), Norwegian Nynorsk snåk (“viper, adder”), Faroese snákur (“grass snake”), Icelandic snákur (“snake”).
Senses: examples: text: The man writhed like a trampled snake, and a red foam bubbled from his lips.
ref: 1892, Oscar Wilde, A House of Pomegranates:
text: After dark the train is a lighted snake, as, even when the passengers' lights are out, each carriage has a side-light in the middle just under the eaves.
ref: 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 263:
synonyms: joe blake
serpent
glosses: Any of the suborder Serpentes of legless reptile with long, thin bodies and fork-shaped tongues.
examples: text: Near-synonym: rat
text: Mrs. Kenwigs was horror-stricken to think that she should ever have nourished in her bosom such a snake, adder, viper, serpent, and base crocodile, as Henrietta Petowker.
ref: 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC:
text: Well, if it was Moore, he's a fucking snake.
ref: 2021, Peter McKenna, 5:51 from the start, in Kin, season 1, episode 2, spoken by Frank Kinsella (Aidan Gillen):
text: [Friedrich] Kadgien—described by US interrogators as “not a true Nazi” but “a snake of the lowest sort”—subsequently left Switzerland for Brazil then Argentina, the paper said, where he started a company and a family and died in 1978, aged 71.
ref: 2025 August 26, Jon Henley, “Old master painting looted by Nazis spotted in Argentinian property listing”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
hypernyms: jerk
<
person#Noun
glosses: A person who acts deceitfully for personal or social gain; a treacherous person.
synonyms: auger
plumber's snake
glosses: A tool for unclogging plumbing.
synonyms: wirepuller
glosses: A tool to aid cable pulling.
glosses: A flavoured jube (confectionary) in the shape of a snake.
synonyms: trouser snake
glosses: Trouser snake; the penis.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A series of Bézier curves.
topics: cartomancy
human-sciences
mysticism
philosophy
sciences
glosses: The seventh Lenormand card.
examples: text: Gem’s a snake for Kamale, man.
text: Yo, bare people and the snakes, yeah, they're just grass / Next minute you're the mate, yeah / Next day stab in the back
ref: 2017 April 7, “War Dub”, performed by Little T (Josh Tate):
synonyms: word: abaddon
word: accuser
word: beefer
word: bewrayer
word: bigmouth
word: blabber
word: blabtale
word: blabtongue
word: canary
word: CI
word: finger
word: fink
word: fizgig
word: gossip
word: grass
word: informant
word: informer
word: jurat
word: leak
word: mole
word: narc
word: nark
word: nonce
word: outer
word: peacher
word: quisling
word: rat
word: ratfink
word: rooster
word: sneak
word: snitch
word: snout
word: squealer
word: state's evidence
word: stooge
word: stool pigeon
word: stoolie
word: supergrass
word: sycophant
word: tattler
word: tattletale
word: telltale tit
word: telltale
word: tout
word: whistleblower
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: An informer; a rat.
examples: text: The snake failed to provide an anchor for currency stability and, through it, disinflation.
ref: 2001, W. Bonefeld, The Politics of Europe: Monetary Union and Class, page 69:
topics: business
finance
glosses: Ellipsis of snake in the tunnel.
glosses: Ellipsis of black snake (“firework that creates a trail of ash”).
Synonyms: word: danger noodle
word: snake
word: serpent
Hypernyms: word: reptile
word: vertebrate
word: animal
Hyponyms: word: viper
word: adder
word: python
word: anaconda
word: mamba
word: rattlesnake
word: cobra
Derived terms: Aesculapian snake
aesculapian snake
antisnake
as mad as a cut snake
ball snake
bastard horn snake
beer snake
Big Bend patchnose snake
black pepper snake
black snake
blacksnake
blind snake
blood snake
blow snake
blue-bellied black snake
Boettger's two-headed snake
brown snake
bull snake
bullsnake
carpet snake
cat snake
caution to snakes
cherish a snake in one's bosom
chicken snake
Chinese snake gourd
coffee snake
come up snake eyes
come up with snake eyes
common purple-glossed snake
Congo snake
coral snake
corn snake
crayfish snake
crooked as a barrel of snakes
dart snake
De Kay's brown snake
De Kay's snake
dice snake
draft snake
dragon snake
drain the snake
earth snake
eastern indigo snake
eleven-striped blind snake
enough to choke a snake
fangtooth snake-eel
fierce snake
file snake
flowsnake
fox snake
Futsing wolf snake
gardener snake
garden snake
garter snake
glass snake
gold-ringed cat snake
gopher snake
go snake
Gould's hooded snake
grass snake
Great Plains rat snake
green snake
harlequin snake
hognose snake
hoop snake
horned snake
hornsnake
house snake
indigo snake
inland snake-eyed skink
Jamaican blind snake
Japanese snake blenny
Javan tubercle snake
Jewnited Snakes
joint snake
king snake
kingsnake
kukri snake
ladder snake
lance snake
large-headed water snake
leopard snake
lined snake
lyre snake
mad as a cut snake
mad as cut snakes
mangrove snake
marsh snake
mean as a snake
mersnake
milk snake
moon snake
mudsnake
mud snake
mulga snake
night snake
olive sea snake
one-eyed snake
one-eyed trouser snake
parrot snake
patchnose snake
penis snake
pilot snake
pine snake
pine woods snake
pipe snake
plumbing snake
purple-glossed snake
queen snake
rainbow snake
rat snake
rattlesnake
rattle snake
red-bellied black snake
red snake
ribbon snake
ringneck snake
rock snake
rough-backed litter snake
sand snake
scarlet snake
screaming snake case
sea snake
shadow snake
short-toed snake eagle
slaty-grey snake
small-scaled snake
smooth green snake
smooth snake
Snake
snake and pygmy pie
snake bean
snakebelly
snakeberry
snakebird
snakebit
snakebite
snakebitten
snakeboard
snake bridge
snake cactus
snake case
snake-cased
snake charmer
snake charming
snake cucumber
snake dance
snake doctor
snakedom
snake draft
snake eagle
snake-eating cobra
snake eel
snake-eel
snake eyes
snake fear
snake feeder
snake fence
snakefish
snakefly
snake fright
snake-fright
snake fruit
snake gourd
snake-grass
snake gun
snake hawk
snakehead
snakehood
snake insert
snake-in-the-box problem
snake in the grass
snake in the tunnel
Snake Island
snake-killer
snakeless
snakelet
snakelike
snakeline
snakeling
snake lizard
snakely
snake mackerel
snakeman
snakemeat
snake melon
snakemouth
snakeneck
snake-necked turtle
snake oil salesman
snake-oil
snake oil
snake palm
Snake Pass
snakephobia
snake-phobia
snake pit
snake plant
snakeproof
snake rake
Snake Range
Snake River
snakeroot
snakes and ladders
snake sea cucumber
snakeshead
snakeshot
snake shot
snakeskin
snakess
snakestone
snake tail
snake tart
snaketivity
snake up
snake vine
snakeweed
snakewhip
snake wine
snakewise
snakewood
snakey
snakie
snakish
snaky
snow snake
son of a snake
stiletto snake
tentacled snake
Texas blind snake
Texas garter snake
thirst snake
thread snake
three-step snake
thunder snake
tiger snake
twig snake
Ulmer's reed snake
wampum snake
wart snake
water snake
western rat snake
whip snake
wolf snake
word snake
worm snake
Related terms: word: :Category:Snakes