Definition

1. Noun:

   • A small, slow-moving mollusk with a spiral shell: A snail is a soft-bodied animal, typically with a coiled shell on its back, belonging to the class Gastropoda. It moves very slowly using a muscular foot.
   • A person who is very slow or sluggish: Informally, a snail can refer to a person who acts or moves with excessive slowness.

2. Verb:

   • To collect or gather snails: The act of searching for and collecting snails, often as a hobby or for food.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The garden was full of snails after the rain.
  • He's such a snail in the morning; it takes him an hour to get ready.
• Verb:
  • We spent the afternoon snailing by the creek.

Advanced Usage

• "at a snail's pace": Moving extremely slowly.
  • The traffic was moving at a snail's pace.
• "snail mail": A humorous term for traditional postal mail, contrasting it with the speed of email.
  • I still prefer sending postcards via snail mail.

Variants and Related Words

• Snail-like (adj): Resembling or characteristic of a snail, especially in slowness.
  • The project's progress was snail-like.
• Snailery (n): A place where snails are bred or kept.

Synonyms

• Gastropod: The scientific term for snails and slugs.
• Slowpoke: (Informal) A very slow person.

Related Phrasal Verbs

(This word does not commonly form phrasal verbs.)

Related Idioms

• "to go at a snail's gallop": An emphatic way to say "to go very slowly."
  • The old car went up the hill at a snail's gallop.

Noun

1. edible terrestrial snail usually served in the shell with a sauce of melted butter and garlic
2. freshwater or marine or terrestrial gastropod mollusk usually having an external enclosing spiral shell

Verb

1. gather snails
   • We went snailing in the summer