snails 1 of 2

noun

plural of snail
as in slugs
someone who moves slowly or more slowly than others go and tell the snails in the back to hurry up

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snails

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of snail
as in crawls
to move slowly the highway construction work created a bottleneck that had cars snailing for the next five miles

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of snails
Noun
In addition to crowding out other species, the DNR says the snails offer fish little nutritional value. — Paula Wethington, CBS News, 2 Nov. 2026 And those kelp forests are—or were—marvels of diversity, providing a shelter for a wild array of ocean creatures from jeweled top sea snails to barrel-bodied harbor seals. — Joseph Ogilvy, Condé Nast Traveler, 28 Oct. 2026 Holed up in her brutalist home in the Swiss alps with her pet snails, she is approached by a handsome young publisher from New York (Alden Ehrenreich) with the impossible task of convincing her to write another book in her Ripley series. — Alex Jhamb Burns, Vogue, 21 Oct. 2026 The researchers found a population deep in a Japanese mountain valley where left- and right-coiling snails can mate and exchange genes. — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 17 Oct. 2026 The inflatable horses, butterflies, snails and other creatures were made by the New York artist and designer Katie Stout. — Samantha Conti, Footwear News, 29 Sep. 2026 The natural scent and texture of cocoa shells help repel slugs and snails from garden beds. — Sj McShane, Martha Stewart, 21 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for snails
  1. slugs
  2. crawls
  3. stragglers
  4. drags
  5. crawlers
  6. creeps
  7. lingerers
  8. pokes
Noun
  • By the time the buck had closed to 40 yards, I’d fired all my slugs and gingerly reloaded.
    — Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 28 Oct. 2026
  • These beneficial predators spend the winter under leaves, emerging in spring to feed on common garden pests such as aphids, slugs and mites.
    — Manjot Kaur Sidhu, The Conversation, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of slugs
Verb
  • There’s also a less than 10% chance of showers, if one of the hurricanes crawls farther up the coast, according to Wofford.
    — Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Hairy-nosed wombat births are hard to spot, as after about a 30-day pregnancy, the joey crawls into its mother’s pouch.
    — Devoun Cetoute, Miami Herald, 16 Aug. 2026
Definition of crawls
Noun
  • The daffodils here were almost finished, apart from one little patch of stragglers still flowering on heroically against the odds.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Swarms or stragglers are most likely to be spotted near the Great Lakes shorelines because the lakes help funnel their routes.
    — Sarah Moore, Freep.com, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of stragglers
Verb
  • Global oil prices are spiking as the US-Iran war drags on, leading to blockbuster profits for oil companies and higher gas prices for US drivers.
    — Chris Isidore, CNN Money, 30 Oct. 2026
  • That is a staggering fact, one that drags behind it a whole ghost book about what happened to Nantucket and countless other places across the country after so many of their citizens left to try to strike it rich in California.
    — Kathryn Schulz, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026
Definition of drags
Noun
  • Many news organizations prevent such crawlers from going through their websites because the crawlers take content without bringing in revenue.
    — Huo Jingnan, NPR, 30 Oct. 2026
  • Dispose of Fall Decorations Seasonal decor like pumpkins and gourds also unintentionally invite an infestation of creepy crawlers.
    — Nadia Hassani, The Spruce, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of crawlers
Verb
  • The tone creeps into despair as the scales fall from Sutskever’s eyes.
    — E. Alex Jung, Vulture, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Rain creeps back into the forecast by the middle of next week, when the tides are expected to be closer to normal.
    — Alex Harris Updated September 27, Miami Herald, 27 Sep. 2026
Definition of creeps
Noun
  • The lingerers brought their dirty dishes to the bus tub, wiped their mouths one last time with a napkin, and waved to Cleo, their faces saying, Nice job!
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Nakamura designs for lingerers.
    — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 1 Apr. 2026
Definition of lingerers
Verb
  • And yet there’s this piece in the policy which pokes its head [and forces them to find a surrogate in Texas].
    — Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 2 Oct. 2026
  • The International Kazoo Championship pokes a little fun at the rigidity of the main stage.
    — David Alm, Longreads, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of pokes

Browse Nearby Words

snail-paced
snails
snake
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Cite this Entry

“Snails.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/snails. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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