English

Alternative forms

• snakey

Adjective

snaky ‎(comparative snakier, superlative snakiest)

1. Resembling or relating to snakes.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 27,

     To look at the tawny brawn of his lithe snaky limbs, you would almost have credited the superstitions of some of the earlier Puritans, and half-believed this wild Indian to be a son of the Prince of the Powers of the Air.

2. Windy; winding; twisty; sinuous, wavy.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene 2,

     So are those crisped snaky golden locks

     Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,

     Upon supposed fairness, often known

     To be the dowry of a second head,

     The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.

   • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, “Chain Gang,”

     The nuns’ veils billowed and flapped behind the snaky line of girls as if the sisters were shooing the serpent from the Garden of Eden.

   Walking through the snaky passages I was soon completely lost.

3. (obsolete) sly; cunning; deceitful.
   • 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained, Book 1, lines 119-120,

     So to the coast of Jordan he directs

     His easy steps, girded with snaky wiles,

4. (obsolete) Covered with serpents; having serpents.
   • 1634, John Milton, Comus, lines 447-452,

     What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield

     That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin,

     Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone,

     But rigid looks of chaste austerity,

     And noble grace that dashed brute violence

     With sudden adoration and blank awe?

   • 1700, John Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite,”

     His hat adorned with wings disclosed the god,

     And in his hand he bore the sleep-compelling rod;

     Such as he seemed, when, at his sire’s command,

     On Argus’ head he laid the snaky wand.

Translations

Anagrams

• yanks, Yanks