<B>snake, </B>noun, verb, <B>snaked,</B> <B>snaking.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a long, slender, crawling reptile without limbs and with a scaly skin and narrow, forked tongue. Some snakes are poisonous. These have poison glands connected with a pair of fangs which inject prey with poison when the snake bites. The snakes comprise a suborder of reptiles. <BR> <I>Ex. Snakes have tails, which is not to say they are all tail (Scientific American).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) a sly, treacherous person. <BR> <I>Ex. I am not ... a snake, to bite when I have learned to love (Rudyard Kipling).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>anything resembling a snake in form or movement. <DD><B> 4. </B>a long, flexible, metal tool used by plumbers to clean out a drain. <DD><B> 5. </B>(Military.) a long pipe filled with explosives, used for blowing up all the mines in a field. <DD><B> 6. </B>(Finance.) a joint-float system of currencies allowed to fluctuate within narrowly defined limits. <BR> <I>Ex. The so-called European snake ... bound France, ... Germany, the Benelux countries, Sweden, Norway and Denmark to hold their currencies within a 4.5% range of fluctuation against each other (Time).</I> <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to move, wind, or curve like a snake. <BR> <I>Ex. The narrow road snaked through the mountains. Since the train was snaking along at a brisk clip, the diner swayed from side to side (New Yorker).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to creep along stealthily like a snake. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>(U.S. Informal.) to drag; haul, especially along the ground with chains or ropes. <BR> <I>Ex. Old Sam cut down most of the virgin timber on his farm, snaked it out by mules to his own sawmills ... (Time).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(U.S. Informal.) to yank; jerk. <BR> <I>Ex. to snake a car out of a ditch.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to clean out (a drain) with a plumber's snake. adj. <B>snakelike.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="snakebird">
<B>snakebird, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>any one of certain swimming birds with a long, snaky neck, such as the water turkey of America; darter. <DD><B> 2. </B>(British Dialect.) the wryneck. </DL>
<A NAME="snakebite">
<B>snakebite, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the bite of a snake, especially a poisonous snake. <BR> <I>Ex. Snakebite causes thousands of deaths in tropical regions every year (Scientific American).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="snakecharmer">
<B>snake charmer,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a person who is supposed to charm snakes, especially with music. </DL>
<A NAME="snakedance">
<B>snake dance,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(U.S.) an informal parade of persons dancing in a zigzag line in celebration, as of a victory or event. <BR> <I>Ex. There were victory rallies and ... snake dances on the Missouri campus (New Yorker).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a ceremonial dance of the Hopi Indians, in which the dancers carry live snakes as an offering to the rain gods. </DL>
<A NAME="snakedance">
<B>snake-dance, </B>intransitive verb, <B>-danced,</B> <B>-dancing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to do a snake dance. noun <B>snake-dancer.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="snakedoctor">
<B>snake doctor,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a doctor who treats snakebites. <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=dragonfly.</B> </DL>
<B>snake eyes,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Slang.) two ones on a roll of dice. </DL>
<A NAME="snakefeeder">
<B>snake feeder,</B> <B>=dragonfly.</B></DL>
<A NAME="snakefence">
<B>snake fence,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a zigzag fence made of rails resting across one another at an angle. </DL>
<A NAME="snakefish">
<B>snakefish, </B>noun, pl. <B>-fishes</B> or (collectively) <B>-fish.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any one of various fishes more or less resembling a snake, such as the lizard fish and the oarfish. </DL>
<A NAME="snakehead">
<B>snakehead, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B><B>=turtlehead.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>any one of a group of elongated labyrinth fish. </DL>
<B>snakelet, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a small snake. </DL>
<A NAME="snakemoss">
<B>snake moss,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the common club moss. </DL>
<A NAME="snakemouth">
<B>snakemouth, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a North American swamp orchid with a slender stem bearing a single, fragrant, rose-colored, nodding flower and a single leaf. </DL>
<A NAME="snakeneck">
<B>snakeneck, </B>noun. <B>=snakebird.</B></DL>
<A NAME="snakeoil">
<B>snake oil,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) any one of various preparations advertised as medicine supposed to cure certain ailments, such as rheumatism, colds, or baldness, formerly sold by peddlers posing as scientists, doctors, or the like. </DL>
<A NAME="snakepit">
<B>snake pit,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a pit filled with snakes. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Informal.) a backward or overcrowded mental institution, prison, or other such facility, especially one where outmoded theories and practices are perpetuated. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Figurative.) any frightening or oppressive place or condition. <BR> <I>Ex. It's difficult to orient one's way in the snake pit we're living in (Arthur Miller).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="snakeplant">
<B>snake plant,</B> <B>=sansevieria.</B></DL>
<A NAME="snakeroot">
<B>snakeroot, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>any one of various plants whose roots have been regarded as a remedy for snakebites, such as the Virginia snakeroot, the Seneca snakeroot, the white snakeroot, the button snakeroot, or a kind of bugbane. <BR> <I>Ex. Rauwolfia, also known as the snakeroot plant, is the source of reserpine, [a] relaxing drug (Science News Letter).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the root of such plants. </DL>
<A NAME="snakeskin">
<B>snakeskin, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the skin of a snake. <DD><B> 2. </B>leather made from it. </DL>
<A NAME="snakestone">
<B>snakestone, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B><B>=ammonite.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>a porous substance supposed to extract the venom from snakebites. </DL>
<A NAME="snakeweed">
<B>snakeweed, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B><B>=bistort.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>any one of the weedy plants among which snakes are supposed to abound. <DD><B> 3. </B>any herb of a group of the composite family with small yellow flower heads. </DL>
<A NAME="snakewood">
<B>snakewood, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1a. </B>any one of certain East Indian shrubs or trees whose wood is supposed to cure snakebites. <DD><B> b. </B>the wood itself. <DD><B> 2a. </B>a South American tree of the mulberry family with a mottled wood used especially for veneering. <DD><B> b. </B>the wood itself; letterwood. </DL>
<A NAME="snaky">
<B>snaky, </B>adjective, <B>snakier,</B> <B>snakiest.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of a snake or snakes. <DD><B> 2. </B>like a snake; like the curving and turning of a snake; twisting; winding. <BR> <I>Ex. doing a snaky dance in front of a white statue (New Yorker).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>having many snakes. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Figurative.) sly; venomous; treacherous. <DD><B> 5. </B>formed with or composed of snakes. adv. <B>snakily.</B> noun <B>snakiness.</B> </DL>
