snake (snāk)

---

[Middle English, from Old English snaca.]

noun 

1. 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.
2. A treacherous person. Also called snake in the grass
3. A long, highly flexible metal wire or coil used for cleaning drains. Also called plumber's snake
4. 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.

verb: snaked, snak·ing, snakes. 

transitive verb 

1. To drag or pull lengthwise, especially to drag with a rope or chain.
2. To pull with quick jerks.
3. To move in a sinuous or gliding manner: tried to snake the rope along the ledge.

intransitive verb 

To move with a sinuous motion: The river snakes through the valley.

Snake¹ (snāk)

---

noun: pl., Snake or Snakes 

See Shoshone

Snake² (snāk)

---

noun 

See Hydra

Hy·dra (hī́drə)

---

[Middle English Idra, from Latin Hydra, from Greek Hudrā, Hydra, a water serpent.]

noun 

1. Greek Mythology The many-headed monster that was slain by Hercules.
2. A constellation in the equatorial region of the southern sky near Cancer, Libra, and Centaurus. Also called Snake²
3. A persistent or multifaceted problem that cannot be eradicated by a single effort.

Sho·sho·ne,
also Sho·sho·ni (shō-shṓnē)

---

[Probably from an Eastern Shoshone band name.]

noun: pl., Shoshone or -nes, also Shoshoni
or -nis 

1. A Native American people comprising three divisions, specifically:
   1. A group inhabiting parts of Idaho, northern Utah, eastern Oregon, and western Montana, now mostly in southeast Idaho. Also called Northern Shoshone, Snake¹
   2. A group inhabiting the Great Basin area of Idaho, Utah, and Nevada south to Death Valley, California, now mostly in Nevada. Also called Western Shoshone
   3. A group inhabiting the Wind River valley of western Wyoming. Also called Eastern Shoshone, Wind River Shoshone
2. A member of this people or any of its divisions.
3. Any of the languages of the Shoshone people.

derivatives

Sho·shóne·an

adjective