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snail

 - 5 dictionary results

snail

  [sneyl]
Use snail in a Sentence
–noun
1. any mollusk of the class Gastropoda, having a spirally coiled shell and a ventral muscular foot on which it slowly glides about.
2. a slow or lazy person; sluggard.
3. a cam having the form of a spiral.
4. Midwestern and Western U.S. a sweet roll in spiral form, esp. a cinnamon roll or piece of Danish pastry.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME snail, snayl(e), OE snegel; c. LG snagel, G (dial.) Schnegel

Related forms:
snaillike, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To snail
snail   (snāl)   
n.  

  1. Any of numerous aquatic or terrestrial mollusks of the class Gastropoda, typically having a spirally coiled shell, broad retractile foot, and distinct head.

  2. A slow-moving, lazy, or sluggish person.


[Middle English, from Old English snægl.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

snail 
O.E. snægl, from P.Gmc. *snagilas (cf. O.S. snegil, O.N. snigill, M.H.G. snegel, dial. Ger. Schnegel, O.H.G. snecko, Ger. Schnecke "snail"), from base *snag-, *sneg- "to crawl" (see snake). The word essentially is a dim. form of O.E. snaca "snake," lit. "creeping thing." Also formerly used of slugs. Symbolic of slowness since at least c.1000; snail's pace is attested from c.1400.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: snail
Pronunciation: 'snA(&)l
Function: noun
: any of various gastropod mollusks and especially those having an external enclosing spiralshell including some which are important in medicine as intermediate hosts of trematodes
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Bible Dictionary

Snail

(1.) Heb. homit, among the unclean creeping things (Lev. 11:30). This was probably the sand-lizard, of which there are many species in the wilderness of Judea and the Sinai peninsula. (2.) Heb. shablul (Ps. 58:8), the snail or slug proper. Tristram explains the allusions of this passage by a reference to the heat and drought by which the moisture of the snail is evaporated. "We find," he says, "in all parts of the Holy Land myriads of snail-shells in fissures still adhering by the calcareous exudation round their orifice to the surface of the rock, but the animal of which is utterly shrivelled and wasted, 'melted away.'"

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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