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snail

Pronunciation: /sneɪl/

The English word “snail” has 7 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Any of very many animals (either hermaphroditic or nonhermaphroditic), of the class Gastropoda, having a coiled shell.
  2. A slow person; a sluggard.
  3. 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.
  4. A tortoise or testudo; a movable roof or shed to protect besiegers.
  5. The pod of the snail clover.
  6. A locomotive with a prime mover but no traction motors, used to provide extra electrical power to another locomotive.

verb

  1. To move or travel very slowly.

Etymology

From Middle English snayl, snail, from the Old English sneġel, from Proto-Germanic *snagilaz. Cognate with Low German Snagel, Snâel, Snâl (“snail”), German Schnegel (“slug”). Compare also Old Norse snigill, from Proto-Germanic *snigilaz.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.