snail /ˈsne(ə)l/
 蝸牛,行動遲緩的人,腦筋遲鈍的人
 snail /ˈsne(ə)l/ 名詞
 蝸牛,小螺
 Snail n.
 1. Zool. (a) Any one of numerous species of terrestrial air-breathing gastropods belonging to the genus Helix and many allied genera of the family Helicidae. They are abundant in nearly all parts of the world except the arctic regions, and feed almost entirely on vegetation; a land snail. (b) Any gastropod having a general resemblance to the true snails, including fresh-water and marine species. See Pond snail, under Pond, and Sea snail.
 2. Hence, a drone; a slow-moving person or thing.
 3. Mech. A spiral cam, or a flat piece of metal of spirally curved outline, used for giving motion to, or changing the position of, another part, as the hammer tail of a striking clock.
 4. A tortoise; in ancient warfare, a movable roof or shed to protect besiegers; a testudo. [Obs.]
    They had also all manner of gynes [engines] . . . that needful is [in] taking or sieging of castle or of city, as snails, that was naught else but hollow pavises and targets, under the which men, when they fought, were heled [protected], . . . as the snail is in his house; therefore they cleped them snails.   --Vegetius (Trans.).
 5. Bot. The pod of the sanil clover.
 Ear snail, Edible snail, Pond snail, etc. See under Ear, Edible, etc.
 Snail borer Zool., a boring univalve mollusk; a drill.
 Snail clover Bot., a cloverlike plant (Medicago scuttellata, also, Medicago Helix); -- so named from its pods, which resemble the shells of snails; -- called also snail trefoil, snail medic, and beehive.
 Snail flower Bot., a leguminous plant (Phaseolus Caracalla) having the keel of the carolla spirally coiled like a snail shell.
 Snail shell Zool., the shell of snail.
 Snail trefoil. Bot. See Snail clover, above.
 ◄ ►
 snail
      n 1: freshwater or marine or terrestrial gastropod mollusk
           usually having an external enclosing spiral shell
      2: edible terrestrial snail usually served in the shell with a
         sauce of melted butter and garlic [syn: escargot]
      v : gather snails; "We went snailing in the summer"
 Snail
    (1.) Heb. homit, among the unclean creeping things (Lev. 11:30).
    This was probably the sand-lizard, of which there are many
    species in the wilderness of Judea and the Sinai peninsula.
      (2.) Heb. shablul (Ps. 58:8), the snail or slug proper.
    Tristram explains the allusions of this passage by a reference
    to the heat and drought by which the moisture of the snail is
    evaporated. "We find," he says, "in all parts of the Holy Land
    myriads of snail-shells in fissures still adhering by the
    calcareous exudation round their orifice to the surface of the
    rock, but the animal of which is utterly shrivelled and wasted,
    'melted away.'"