Definition of "snake" []

• Any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes or Ophidia (order Squamata), having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions. (noun)
• A treacherous person. Also called snake in the grass. (noun)
• A long, highly flexible metal wire or coil used for cleaning drains. Also called plumber's snake. (noun)
• Economics A fixing of the value of currencies to each other within defined parameters, which when graphed visually shows these currencies remaining parallel in value to each other as a unit despite fluctuations with other currencies. (noun)
• To drag or pull lengthwise, especially to drag with a rope or chain. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Raccoons, one excessively stinky skunk in the southbound lane of US 1A (different section than last time), one garter snake, one eastern milk snake _or_ northern water snake*, various things not seen in the roadside grass but making their presence felt (or smelled)."
• "The term snake oil is often used to describe cryptography that does not actually provide the level of security that its proponents claim."
• "Eventually this behavior became so widespread that the term snake oil became generalized to other products, ones that made claims of effectiveness that could not easily be substantiated by consumers and should thus be suspected of being false or misleading."