SNAIL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does snail mean? 

• SNAIL (noun)
  The noun SNAIL has 2 senses:

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

  Familiarity information: SNAIL used as a noun is rare.

• SNAIL (verb)
  The verb SNAIL has 1 sense:

1. gather snails

  Familiarity information: SNAIL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SNAIL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Freshwater or marine or terrestrial gastropod mollusk usually having an external enclosing spiral shell

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("snail" is a kind of...):

gastropod; univalve (a class of mollusks typically having a one-piece coiled shell and flattened muscular foot with a head bearing stalked eyes)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "snail"):

scorpion shell (any of numerous tropical marine snails that as adults have the outer lip of the aperture produced into a series of long curved spines)

edible snail; Helix pomatia (one of the chief edible snails)

garden snail (any of several inedible snails of the genus Helix; often destructive pests)

Derivation:

snail (gather snails)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Edible terrestrial snail usually served in the shell with a sauce of melted butter and garlic

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

escargot; snail

Hypernyms ("snail" is a kind of...):

meat (the flesh of animals (including fishes and birds and snails) used as food)

Holonyms ("snail" is a substance of...):

edible snail; Helix pomatia (one of the chief edible snails)

Derivation:

snail (gather snails)

• SNAIL (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Gather snails

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

We went snailing in the summer

Hypernyms (to "snail" is one way to...):

collect; garner; gather; pull together (assemble or get together)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "snail"):

whelk (gather whelk)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

In the summer they like to go out and snail

Derivation:

snail (freshwater or marine or terrestrial gastropod mollusk usually having an external enclosing spiral shell)

snail (edible terrestrial snail usually served in the shell with a sauce of melted butter and garlic)

 Context examples 

The snail shell-shaped auditory component of the inner ear.

(Cochlea, NCI Thesaurus)

Any researcher in the world may now have access to the sequenced genome of this snail and use it in other research studies.

(Scientists sequence genome of snail linked to schistosomiasis, Agência Brasil)

The wind was favourable, and I had thought to tow them back under sail, but the wind baffled, then died away, and our progress with the oars was a snail’s pace.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

EMT tumors are more frequent in some GEM models than others (ILK1 and GSK3), frequently do not express the transgenic oncogene and are associated with up regulation of snail or slug.

(Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition Tumor of the Mouse Mammary Gland, NCI Thesaurus/MMHCC)

Class of mollusks that includes snails.

(Gastropods, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

Hair cells are spread across a flat surface called the basilar membrane, which is rolled like a carpet and tucked into a snail shell-shaped structure in the inner ear called the cochlea.

(Hearing different frequencies, NIH)

I likewise broke my right shin against the shell of a snail, which I happened to stumble over, as I was walking alone and thinking on poor England.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

We go like snails, like snails that are dying we go so slow. And yet we go faster than the man who is before us. For he, too, falls all the time, and there is no Sitka Charley to lift him up.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I'm a reg'lar Dodman, I am, said Mr. Peggotty, by which he meant snail, and this was in allusion to his being slow to go, for he had attempted to go after every sentence, and had somehow or other come back again; but I wish you both well, and I wish you happy!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

We could but fall into our places and be content to snail along from Reigate to Horley and on to Povey Cross and over Lowfield Heath, while day shaded away into twilight, and that deepened into night.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)