Snail Meaning
/sneɪl/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAny of very many animals (either hermaphroditic or nonhermaphroditic), of the class Gastropoda, having a coiled shell.
nounA slow person; a sluggard.
Sentence Examples
The taxi seemed to go as slowly as a snail.
The GNP has been growing at a snail's pace.
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the garden, a slow ____ moved across the lettuce leaves this morning.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A ____ can pull its entire body inside its hard shell when it feels threatened by a predator.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’"
— 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the garden, a slow ____ moved across the lettuce leaves this morning.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A ____ can pull its entire body inside its hard shell when it feels threatened by a predator.