subs. (old).—1.  A term of contempt; 2 (colloquial) = a secret plotter, a hidden foe: e.g., ‘a SNAKE in the grass.’

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  1600.  SHAKESPEARE, As You Like It, iv. 3. Well, go your way to her, for I see love hath made thee a tame SNAKE.

2

  c. 1609.  J. HEALEY, The Discovery of a New World, 114. The poore SNAKES dare not so much as wipe their mouthes vnlesse their wiues bidde them.

3

  1612–3.  FLETCHER, The Captain, i. 3.

        Admit ’em; but no SNAKES to poison us,
With poverty.

4

  1631.  BRATHWAITE, Clitus’s Whimzies, 67. For those poore SNAKES who feed on reversions, a glimpse through the key-hole, or a light through the Grate, must be all their prospect.

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  1638.  RANDOLPH, The Muse’s Looking-Glass [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), ix. 228]. But I have found him a poore baffel’d SNAKE.

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  1677.  E. COLES, English-Latin Dictionary. A poore SNAKE, Iries.

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  3.  (tailors’).—A skein of silk.

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  Verb. (thieves’).—1.  To steal warily: cf. SNEAK.

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  2.  (American).—To beat; to thrash.

10

  1850.  W. VALENTINE, A Budget of Wit and Humour, 48. Any gal like me … ought to be able to SNAKE any man of her heft.

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  PHRASES.—TO SNAKE OUT (ALONG or UP) = to drag or worm out; TO SNAKE IN = to steal in, to draw in; TO GIVE ONE A SNAKE = to vex; TO SNAKE THE POOL = to take the pool (billiards’); A CAUTION TO SNAKES = a matter of surprise, something singular, a REVELATION (q.v.); SNAKES IN THE BOOTS = delirium tremens: also TO SEE SNAKES; ‘As sure as there’s SNAKES in Virginny’ = as sure as may be.

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  1848.  J. R. LOWELL, The Biglow Papers, ix.

                            Pomp he SNAKED UP behin’,
An’ creepin’ grad’lly close tu, ez quiet ez a mink,
Jest grabbed my leg.

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  1877.  Boston Bulletin, Feb. Although they could not open the doors of the Church to him, perhaps he might be SNAKED IN under the canvas.

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  1883.  Philadelphia Press, 2810, 4. Unless some legal loophole can be found through which an evasion or extension can be successfully SNAKED.

15

  1884.  S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, xxix. ‘Well, it beats me’—and SNAKED a lot of old letters out of his pocket.

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  1888.  Scientific American, N. S., lxix. 265. After mining, the log is easily ‘SNAKED OUT’ of the swamp.

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  1897.  MARSHALL, Pomes, ‘Her Sunday Clothes,’ 105. Her Sunday best was her week-day worst, ’Twas simply A CAUTION TO SNAKES.

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