snail

SNAYL/sneɪl/

7 meanings of snail

1
nouncountable
A small, soft-bodied animal that carries a coiled shell and moves very slowly.
Like a little animal that carries its own house on its back.
A snail crept across the wet path, leaving a shiny trail behind.
Snails pull their bodies inside their shells when they feel threatened.
Note
2
nouncolloquialcountable
A person who is very slow or always takes too long to do things.
Like the little creature that crawls along very, very slowly.
Hurry up, you snail, the movie is about to start!
My little brother is a real snail when he gets ready for school.
Similarslowpoke, slowcoach, sluggard, dawdler, laggard
3
verbintransitive
To move or travel somewhere very slowly.
Like crawling along as slowly as a snail on a leaf.
Cars snail along the road whenever there is too much traffic.
We snailed home through the heavy snow.
Similarcrawl, creep, inch
Oppositerace, speed
Note
4
nouncountable
A curved, spiral-shaped metal part that moves another part in a machine such as a clock.
Like a set of steps that decides how many times a bell rings.
The clockmaker filed the snail until the bell struck the right number of times.
A worn snail made the old clock strike twelve at one o'clock.
Note
5
nouncountable
A railway engine that makes extra electric power for another engine but cannot pull a train by itself.
Like a generator on wheels that helps a bigger engine.
The crew added a snail to the train to give it more power on the long climb.
A snail cannot run on its own, so it always works behind another engine.
Note
6
nounhistoricalcountable
A movable shed or roof that protected attacking soldiers as they reached a fort's wall.
Like a strong roof on wheels that soldiers could hide under.
The soldiers pushed the snail close to the wall to stay safe from arrows.
Under the snail, the attackers dug at the base of the gate.
Similartestudo
Note
7
nouncountable
The seed case that grows on the snail clover plant.
Like a little seed case twisted into the shape of a snail's shell.
After the clover flowered, small snails formed where the blossoms had been.
She split open a snail to count the seeds curled inside.

Practice

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Origin

From Old English sneġel, which came from an old Germanic word.