Slither Meaning
/ˈslɪðə/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo move about smoothly and from side to side.
verbTo slide.
Sentence Examples
Tom saw a snake slither across the path.
Ziri felt something slither under his left leg.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The snake began to ____ silently across the rocky ground in the dark.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We watched the long snake ____ through the tall grass and disappear into the thick bushes.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English slitheren, alteration of slideren (“to slither, creep”), from Old English slidrian (“to slip, slide, slither”), from Proto-West Germanic *slidrōn (“to slide, slither”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleydʰ- (“to slip”), equivalent to slide + -er (frequentative suffix). Cognate with Dutch slidderen (“to slip, wriggle, slither”), German schlittern (“to slither, skid”). More at slide.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[Indiana:] Wave it at anything that slithers.
[Marion:] The whole place is slithering!"
— 1981, Lawrence Kasdan, Raiders of the Lost Ark:
"She also had a map of the building, not that it was very large, and she'd memorized the layout. The guard station would be right around the corner, and there ought to be a counter about the height of a half-wall looking out over the corridor with only a bulletin board on the opposite wall. She crouched down, and slithered left."
— 2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 22 May 2024:
"Some snow slides recorded have exceeded a million tons and slithered down the mountain-side at a speed of 60 miles an hour."
— 1954 February, Trevor Holloway, “Canada's Transcontinental Routes”, in Railway Magazine, page 128:
"I bent down and with both hands I scooped up as much of this pissshit as I could. The green and brown clump felt like Jello as it dripped down all over my clothes. It was slithering through inbetween^([sic]) my fingers."
— 2003, J. Flash, An American Savage:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The snake began to ____ silently across the rocky ground in the dark.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We watched the long snake ____ through the tall grass and disappear into the thick bushes.