snails

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of snail.

   Hungry snails had stripped the young seedlings overnight.

   The chef served the snails in garlic butter and parsley.

   Note

   A regular plural that serves every noun meaning of snail, not just the garden animal. To a clockmaker, snails are spiral cams that set the hammer tail of a striking clock. In historical warfare they were movable roofs that sheltered besiegers. On the railroad they are locomotives without traction motors that supply extra power. The same spelling is also the 'moves slowly' verb, so in "traffic snails" there is no noun at all.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of snail.

   The line at the post office snails forward one customer at a time.

   Her recovery snails along, but the doctors remain hopeful.

   Note

   The verb behind this form takes no object. Something snails; it does not snail something else. For that reason it usually wants a word of direction to finish the thought: snails along, snails forward, snails past. It is mostly figurative, applied to queues, traffic and recoveries rather than to animals, and it implies progress slower than anyone would like. Its spelling twin is the plural noun.

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