snake
n. countablen. a long, thin animal with no legs and a smooth skin. Some types are dangerous because they have a poisonous bite.
n. a limbless, scaly, elongate reptile of the suborder Serpentes. In a figurative sense, it refers to a treacherous or deceitful person.
The snake moves quietly through the tall grass.
While hiking through the desert, we saw a small snake sunning itself on a flat rock.
The tropical rainforest is home to an incredible variety of snakes, ranging from tiny, harmless species to massive constrictors that hunt large mammals.
From Middle English snake, from Old English snaca (“snake, serpent, reptile”), from Proto-West Germanic snakō (“slider, snake”), from snakan (“to creep, slide”), related to Old High German snahhan (“to sneak, slide”). Compare also Proto-Germanic *snēkô (“creeper, crawler”). Cognate with German Low German Snake, Snaak (“snake”), dialectal German Schnake (“adder”), Danish snog (“grass snake”), Swedish snok (“grass snake”), Norwegian Nynorsk snåk (“viper, adder”), Faroese snákur (“grass snake”), Icelandic snákur (“snake”).
Often used metaphorically to describe a person who is perceived as untrustworthy or sneaky.