Snail

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Snail \Snail\ (sn[=a]l), n. [OE. snaile, AS. sn[ae]gel, snegel,
     sn[ae]gl; akin to G. schnecke, OHG. snecko, Dan. snegl, Icel.
     snigill.]
     1. (Zool.)
        (a) Any one of numerous species of terrestrial
            air-breathing gastropods belonging to the genus Helix


            and many allied genera of the family {Helicidae}. They
            are abundant in nearly all parts of the world except
            the arctic regions, and feed almost entirely on
            vegetation; a land snail.
        (b) Any gastropod having a general resemblance to the true
            snails, including fresh-water and marine species. See
            {Pond snail}, under {Pond}, and {Sea snail}.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Hence, a drone; a slow-moving person or thing.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Mech.) 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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. A tortoise; in ancient warfare, a movable roof or shed to
        protect besiegers; a testudo. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              They had also all manner of gynes [engines] . . .
              that needful is [in] taking or sieging of castle or
              of city, as snails, that was naught else but hollow
              pavises and targets, under the which men, when they
              fought, were heled [protected], . . . as the snail
              is in his house; therefore they cleped them snails.
                                                    --Vegetius
                                                    (Trans.).
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. (Bot.) The pod of the sanil clover.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Ear snail}, {Edible snail}, {Pond snail}, etc. See under
        {Ear}, {Edible}, etc.
  
     {Snail borer} (Zool.), a boring univalve mollusk; a drill.
  
     {Snail clover} (Bot.), a cloverlike plant ({Medicago
        scuttellata}, also, {Medicago Helix}); -- so named from
        its pods, which resemble the shells of snails; -- called
        also {snail trefoil}, {snail medic}, and {beehive}.
  
     {Snail flower} (Bot.), a leguminous plant ({Phaseolus
        Caracalla}) having the keel of the carolla spirally coiled
        like a snail shell.
  
     {Snail shell} (Zool.), the shell of snail.
  
     {Snail trefoil}. (Bot.) See {Snail clover}, above.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  snail
       n 1: freshwater or marine or terrestrial gastropod mollusk
            usually having an external enclosing spiral shell
       2: edible terrestrial snail usually served in the shell with a
          sauce of melted butter and garlic [syn: {escargot}]
       v : gather snails; "We went snailing in the summer"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  53 Moby Thesaurus words for "snail":
     Chilopoda, Chordata, Dungeness crab, Echiuroidea, Ectoprocta,
     Entoprocta, Japanese crab, Monoplacophora, Nemertinea, Phoronidea,
     blue point, clam, coquillage, crab, crawdad, crawfish, crayfish,
     dawdle, dawdler, drone, foot-dragger, goldbrick, goof-off, laggard,
     langouste, lie-abed, limpet, lingerer, littleneck clam, lobster,
     loiterer, mussel, oyster, periwinkle, plodder, prawn,
     procrastinator, quahog, scallop, shellfish, shrimp, sleepyhead,
     slow goer, slow-foot, slowbelly, slowpoke, slug, sluggard,
     soft-shell crab, steamer, stick-in-the-mud, tortoise, whelk
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  snail vt. To {snail-mail} something. "Snail me a copy of those
     graphics, will you?"
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Snail
     (1.) Heb. homit, among the unclean creeping things (Lev. 11:30).
     This was probably the sand-lizard, of which there are many
     species in the wilderness of Judea and the Sinai peninsula.
     
       (2.) Heb. shablul (Ps. 58:8), the snail or slug proper.
     Tristram explains the allusions of this passage by a reference
     to the heat and drought by which the moisture of the snail is
     evaporated. "We find," he says, "in all parts of the Holy Land
     myriads of snail-shells in fissures still adhering by the
     calcareous exudation round their orifice to the surface of the
     rock, but the animal of which is utterly shrivelled and wasted,
     'melted away.'"