snakes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of snake.

   Several snakes coiled together beneath the fallen log.

   Farmers in the region often find snakes hiding in the tall grass.

   Note

   A regular plural that serves every noun sense, not only the reptile. Plumbers use snakes to clear clogged drains, electricians use them to pull cable, and in Australia and the UK snakes can be snake-shaped jubes. Treacherous people get called snakes too. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb and a startled exclamation, so context decides which one is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of snake.

   The mountain road snakes along the edge of the cliff.

   A cable snakes behind the desk and disappears into the wall.

   Note

   The -s form covers both intransitive and transitive uses. Roads and cables snake along with no object, while a plumber snakes a drain, clearing it with the tool. Watch for out. In informal American use someone snakes a thing out, dragging it free. In Multicultural London English, to snake someone out is to inform on them. In Australian slang, whoever snakes your lunch has slyly stolen it.

3. 3
   interjection

   An exclamation used to express surprise or astonishment.

   Snakes! I never expected to see you back home so soon.

   She threw open the door and gasped, "Snakes, what a mess!"

   Similargosh, golly, wow, crikey

   Note

   The short form of snakes alive, the fuller cry of surprise. Like it, the word stands alone as a mild outburst, usually with an exclamation mark. G. K. Chesterton gives it to an impetuous Westerner in The Incredulity of Father Brown (1926), who cries "Snakes!" like one speaking before he could stop himself. That captures the involuntary jolt the word conveys.

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