[f. SNAKE sb. or v.1]
1. Naut. (See quots. and SNAKE v. 1 b.)
1815. Burney, Falconer’s Dict. Marine, 487/1. Snaking … is the act of winding small ropes spirally round a large one,… and is frequently termed Worming.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 635. Snaking. The passing of small stuff across a seizing, with marline hitches at the outer turns.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2229/1. Snaking.… Stoppers passed alternately from one stay or rope to another throughout their length in a parallel direction.
2. A snake-like curl or coil.
1888. Clark Russell, Death Ship, xli. Heights of the sea … spouting their prodigious lengths alongside, sometimes tumbling in thunder upon her forward decks, sometimes curling in blown snakings ahead of her.
3. U.S. The action of dragging out.
1883. E. Ingersoll, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 206/1. The snaking out of these logs is another source of casualty to the lumberman.
