Any one of numerous species of terrestrial air-breathing gastropods belonging to the genus Helix and many allied genera of the family Helicidæ. They are abundant in nearly all parts of the world except the arctic regions, and feed almost entirely on vegetation; a land snail. [1913 Webster]

Hence, a drone; a slow-moving person or thing. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

A tortoise; in ancient warfare, a movable roof or shed to protect besiegers; a testudo. [1913 Webster]
"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." [1913 Webster]

The pod of the sanil clover. [1913 Webster]

Ear snail, Edible snail, Pond snail, etc. See under Ear, Edible, etc. -- Snail borer (Zoöl.), 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 (Zoöl.), the shell of snail. -- Snail trefoil. (Bot.) See Snail clover, above.

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OXFORD DICTIONARY

Snail, n. any slow-moving gastropod mollusc with a spiral shell able to enclose the whole body.

Idiom

snail's pace a very slow movement.

Derivative

snail-like adj.

Etymology

OE sn{aelig}g(e)l f. Gmc

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THESAURUS

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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ROGET THESAURUS

Snail

Slowness
N slowness, languor, drawl, creeping, lentor, retardation, slackening, delay, claudication, jog trot, dog trot, mincing steps, slow march, slow time, slow goer, slow coach, slow back, lingerer, loiterer, sluggard, tortoise, snail, poke, dawdle, slow, slack, tardy, dilatory, gentle, easy, leisurely, deliberate, gradual, insensible, imperceptible, glacial, languid, sluggish, slow paced, tardigrade, snail-like, creeping, reptatorial, slowly, leisurely, piano, adagio, largo, larghetto, at half speed, under easy sail, at a foots pace, at a snail's pace, at a funeral pace, in slow time, with mincing steps, with clipped wings, haud passibus aequis, gradually, gradatim, by degrees, by slow degrees, by inches, by little and little, step by step, one step at a time, inch by inch, bit by bit, little by little, seriatim, consecutively, dum Roma deliberat Saguntum perit, at a glacial pace.

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