snake

== English == === Alternative forms === (noun: the animal): snek (Internet slang, childish, humorous) === 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”). === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: snāk, IPA(key): /sneɪk/ Rhymes: -eɪk === Noun === snake (plural snakes) Any of the suborder Serpentes of legless reptiles with long, thin bodies and fork-shaped tongues. Synonyms: Joe Blake, serpent (figurative) A person who acts deceitfully for personal or social gain; a treacherous person. Hypernyms: jerk < person; see also Thesaurus:jerk Hyponym: snake in the grass Near-synonyms: rat; see also Thesaurus:betrayer A tool for unclogging plumbing. Synonyms: auger, plumber's snake A tool to aid cable pulling. Synonym: wirepuller (UK, Australia) A flavoured jube (confectionary) in the shape of a snake. (slang) Trouser snake; the penis. Synonym: trouser snake (mathematics) A series of Bézier curves. (cartomancy) The seventh Lenormand card. (African-American Vernacular, MLE, MTE) An informer; a rat. Synonyms: see Thesaurus:informant (skateboarding, slang) A person who interferes with another's run or who takes their run out of turn. (finance, historical) Ellipsis of snake in the tunnel. Ellipsis of black snake (“firework that creates a trail of ash”). Ellipsis of snake game. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Descendants ==== → Māori: neke → Mokilese: sinek → Sranan Tongo: sneki ==== Translations ==== === Verb === snake (third-person singular simple present snakes, present participle snaking, simple past and past participle snaked) (intransitive) To follow or move in a winding route. Synonyms: slither, wind (transitive, Australia, slang) To steal slyly. (transitive) To clean using a plumbing snake. (US, informal) To drag or draw, as a snake from a hole; often with out. November 27 1835, N.B. St. John, letter to George Thompson (nautical) To wind round spirally, as a large rope with a smaller, or with cord, the small rope lying in the spaces between the strands of the large one; to worm. (African-American Vernacular, MLE) To inform; to rat; often with out. (skateboarding, slang) To interfere with another's run or to take one's run out of turn. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === See also === anguine === Further reading === snake on Wikipedia.Wikipedia === Anagrams === kaens, akens, nakes, skean, Keans, sneak, Kasen, kenas, asken, Skåne == Middle English == === Alternative forms === snak snaca (Early Middle English) === Etymology === From Old English snaca, from Proto-West Germanic *snakō. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈsnaːk(ə)/ === Noun === snake (plural snakes or snaken or snake) snake serpent ==== Descendants ==== English: snake (see there for further descendants) Scots: snake ==== References ==== “snāke, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 3 April 2018.