snake

UK:**UK and possibly other pronunciationsUK and possibly other pronunciations/ˈsneɪk/US:USA pronunciation: IPA and respellingUSA pronunciation: IPA/sneɪk/ ,USA pronunciation: respelling(snāk)

Inflections of 'snake' (v): (⇒ conjugate)
snakes
v 3rd person singular
snaking
v pres p
snaked
v past
snaked
v past p

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
snake /sneɪk/USA pronunciation   n., v., snaked, snak•ing. 
n. [countable]
  1. Reptilesa scaly reptile with a long thin body that has no arms or legs:Some snakes have a poisonous bite.
  2. a treacherous person.
  3. Building(in plumbing) a flexible, wirelike device for loosening anything stuck in curved pipes.

v. 
  1. to move, twist, or wind in the manner of a snake:[no object]The road snakes among the mountains.
  2. to wind or make (one's course, etc.) like a snake:[+ object]She snaked her way through the crowd.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
snake  (snāk),USA pronunciation n., v., snaked, snak•ing. 
n. 
  1. Reptilesany of numerous limbless, scaly, elongate reptiles of the suborder Serpentes, comprising venomous and nonvenomous species inhabiting tropical and temperate areas.
  2. a treacherous person;
    an insidious enemy. Cf. snake in the grass. 
  3. Building
    • Also called auger, plumber's snake. (in plumbing) a device for dislodging obstructions in curved pipes, having a head fed into the pipe at the end of a flexible metal band.
    • Also called wirepuller. a length of resilient steel wire, for threading through an electrical conduit so that wire can be pulled through after it.

v.i. 
  1. to move, twist, or wind:The road snakes among the mountains.

v.t. 
  1. to wind or make (one's course, way, etc.) in the manner of a snake:to snake one's way through a crowd.
  2. to drag or haul, esp. by a chain or rope, as a log.
  • bef. 1000; Middle English (noun, nominal); Old English snaca; cognate with Middle Low German snake, Old Norse snākr
snakelike′, adj. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
snake /sneɪk/ n
  1. any reptile of the suborder Ophidia (or Serpentes), typically having a scaly cylindrical limbless body, fused eyelids, and a jaw modified for swallowing large prey: includes venomous forms such as cobras and rattlesnakes, large nonvenomous constrictors (boas and pythons), and small harmless types such as the grass snake
  2. Also called: snake in the grass a deceitful or treacherous person
  3. anything resembling a snake in appearance or action
  4. (in the European Union) a former system of managing a group of currencies by allowing the exchange rate of each of them only to fluctuate within narrow limits
  5. a tool in the form of a long flexible wire for unblocking drains
vb
  1. (intransitive) to glide or move like a snake
  2. (transitive) to move in or follow (a sinuous course)
Etymology: Old English snaca; related to Old Norse snākr snake, Old High German snahhan to crawl, Norwegian snōk snailˈsnakeˌlike adj
'snake' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
Collocations: a [venomous, dangerous, harmless, deadly] snake, an area [populated, inhabited] by snakes, [bitten, killed, attacked] by a snake, more...

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