SNAIL : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: SNAIL	by the DICT Development Group
4 results for SNAIL
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
snail n freshwater or marine or terrestrial gastropod mollusk usually having an external enclosing spiral shell edible terrestrial snail usually served in the shell with a sauce of melted butter and garlic Synonym(s): escargot, snail v gather snails; "We went snailing in the summer"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Snail \Snail\ (sn[amac]l), n. [OE. snaile, AS. sn[ae]gel, snegel, sn[ae]gl; akin to G. schnecke, OHG. snecko, Dan. snegl, Icel. snigill.] 1. (Zo[94]l.) (a) Any one of numerous species of terrestrial air-breathing gastropods belonging to the genus Helix and many allied genera of the family {Helicid[91]}. 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}. 2. Hence, a drone; a slow-moving person or thing. 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. 4. A tortoise; in ancient warfare, a movable roof or shed to protect besiegers; a testudo. [Obs.] 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.). 5. (Bot.) The pod of the sanil clover. {Ear snail}, {Edible snail}, {Pond snail}, etc. See under {Ear}, {Edible}, etc. {Snail borer} (Zo[94]l.), a boring univalve mollusk; a drill. {Snail clover} (Bot.), a cloverlike plant ({Medicago scuttellata}, also, {M. 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} (Zo[94]l.), the shell of snail. {Snail trefoil}. (Bot.) See {Snail clover}, above.
From Jargon File (4.2.0, 31 JAN 2000) [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.'"