snail
English · Thesaurus
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snail
- /sneɪl/
- [sn̥eɪ̯ɫ]
Rhymes with -eɪl
Where it comes from
From Middle English snayl, snail, from the Old English sneġel, from Proto-Germanic *snagilaz. Cognate with Low German Snagel,
Snâel, Snâl (“snail”), German Schnegel (“slug”). Compare also Old Norse snigill, from Proto-Germanic *snigilaz.
noun snails
- Any of very many animals (either hermaphroditic or nonhermaphroditic), of the class Gastropoda, having a coiled shell. ‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’
- A slow person; a sluggard.
- A spiral cam, or a flat piece of metal of spirally curved outline, used for giving motion to, or changing the position of, another part, as the hammer tail of a striking clock.
- A tortoise or testudo; a movable roof or shed to protect besiegers.
- The pod of the snail clover.
- A locomotive with a prime mover but no traction motors, used to provide extra electrical power to another locomotive.
verb snails · snailing · snailed
- To move or travel very slowly. The cars were snailing along the motorway during the rush hour.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: escargot, physa, gastropod, wallfish, pitch, pulmonate, darter, slow, darters, slug, mollusk, mollusc, helicid, sea snail, land snail, helix
Translations
Every language
noun any animal of the class Gastropoda having a shell
| Español | caracol, churo, tlaconete |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 달팽이 dalpaeng'i, 와우 wau |
| 日本語 | 蝸牛 katatsumuri, カタツムリ katatsumuri, でんでん虫 denden-mushi |
| 中文 | 蝸牛 /蜗牛 wōniú, guāniú |
| हिन्दी | घोंगा ghoṅgā |
| Kiswahili | konokono |
| Português | caramujo, caracol |
| Français | escargot, limaçon |
| Deutsch | Schnecke, Gehäuseschnecke |
| Italiano | chiocciola, lumaca |
| Ελληνικά | σαλιγκάρι saligkári |
| Română | melc |
| Русский | ули́тка ulítka |
| Tiếng Việt | ốc |
| العربية | حَلَزُون ḥalazūn |
| עברית | חִלָּזוֹן khilazón, שַׁבְּלוּל shablúl |
Talk about this word "snail." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/snail. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. snail. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/snail "snail." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/snail.Cite this
@misc{snail_2026,
title = {snail},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/snail},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
