Snail
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
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}, {snail}]
v 1: gather snails; "We went snailing in the summer"
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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.
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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.
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4. A tortoise; in ancient warfare, a movable roof or shed to
protect besiegers; a testudo. [Obs.]
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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.).
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5. (Bot.) The pod of the sanil clover.
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{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
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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.'"
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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
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