snake

Etymology

From Middle English snake, from Old English snaca (“snake, serpent, reptile”), from Proto-Germanic *snakô (compare German Low German Snake, Snaak (“snake”), dialectal German Schnake (“adder”), Swedish snok (“grass snake”), Icelandic snákur (“snake”)), derived from *snakaną (“to crawl”) (compare Old High German snahhan), from Proto-Indo-European *sneg- (“to crawl; a creeping thing”). Cognate with Sanskrit नाग (nāgá, “snake”)). Doublet of nāga.

noun

1. A legless reptile of the suborder Serpentes with a long, thin body and a fork-shaped tongue.
   The man writhed like a trampled snake, and a red foam bubbled from his lips. 1892, Oscar Wilde, A House of Pomegranates
2. A treacherous person; a rat.
   Mrs. Kenwigs was horror-stricken to think that she should ever have nourished in her bosom such a snake, adder, viper, serpent, and base crocodile, as Henrietta Petowker. 1838, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby
3. (Ireland, UK) Somebody who acts deceitfully for social gain.
4. A tool for unclogging plumbing.
5. A tool to aid cable pulling.
6. (Australia) A flavoured jube (confectionary) in the shape of a snake.
7. (slang) Trouser snake; the penis.
8. (mathematics) A series of Bézier curves.
9. (cartomancy) The seventh Lenormand card.
10. (MLE, MTE) An informer; a rat.
    Gem’s a snake for Kamale, man.
11. (finance, historical) Short for snake in the tunnel.
    The snake failed to provide an anchor for currency stability and, through it, disinflation. 2001, W. Bonefeld, The Politics of Europe: Monetary Union and Class, page 69
12. Short for black snake (“firework that creates a trail of ash”).

verb

1. (intransitive) To follow or move in a winding route.
   The path snaked through the forest.
   The river snakes through the valley.
   Any Brisbane female interested in snaking down a few beers whilst watching the footy on a big screen? September 24, 1996, Mark Addinall, “Football fever...”, in aus.personals (Usenet)
   Opened in June of that year [1880], the station was the southern terminus of the much-lamented Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (the S&D or 'Slow and Dirty'), which snaked its way down from Bath. December 29 2021, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Bournemouth (circa 1880)”, in RAIL, number 947, pages 59–60
2. (transitive, Australia, slang) To steal slyly.
   He snaked my DVD!
   Although it wouldn't be the first time some one patented an idea that I'd had a year earlier.[…]Someone already has :)[…]F*CK ME !! Snaked again ! April 5, 2001, Hyena, “Home made supercharger ?”, in aus.cars (Usenet)
3. (transitive) To clean using a plumbing snake.
4. (US, informal) To drag or draw, as a snake from a hole; often with out.
   November 27 1835, N.B. St. John, letter to George Thompson his wife and children shall not be forced to flee from the hearth of a friend, lest they should be snaked out by men in civic authority
5. (nautical) To wind round spirally, as a large rope with a smaller, or with cord, the small rope lying in the spaces between the strands of the large one; to worm.
6. (MLE) To inform; to rat.
   He says he didn't snake and I believe him.