snakewood

[ Eng.snake, and wood.] Botany: 1. The genus Ophioxylon (q. v.). 2. Brosimum aubletii ; called also Pir at in era guianensis; an Artocarpad, sixty to seventy feet high, growing in Brazil. The beautiful heart wood, called from its markings snake-wood, is exceedingly hard. 3. Strychnos colubrina , a climbing Indian plant, with tendrils believed by native doctors to be a cure for the poison of the cobra. 4. The genus Cecropia. ( Paxton .) snāk-ing, s. [Eng. snak( e ); -ing.] Nautical : 1. Pa ing a line spirally around a rope, so as to lie in the indentations between the strands. [WORMING.] 2. One of a set of stoppers pa ed alternately from one stay or rope to another throughout their length in a parallel direction, so that if one is shot away its functions may be performed by the other. snāk-ish, adj . [Eng. snak(e); -ish.] Having a snake-like form, habits, or qualities; snaky. snāk-, *snak-ie, a. [Eng.snak(e); -v.] 1. Of or pertaining to a snake or snakes; resembling a snake. "A devil with horns, cloven hoof, and a snaky tail."Macaulay: Hist . Eng ., ch. xxv. 2. Winding in and out like a snake; meandering. "A snakier stream I never saw."- London Daily Telegraph. B. Intransitive: 1. To break off short; to part asunder suddenly. "The wire rope snapped , and the lift and its occupants fell from the third story."- London Daily Telegraph. 2. To make an effort to bite; to try to seize with the teeth. "With little curs, which dare his way molest, Snapping behind." P. Fletcher: Purple Island, xi. 3. To give out a sharp, cracking sound, as that of the hammer of a fire-arm when it falls without exploding the charge; as, The pistol snapped . 4. To utter sharp, harsh, or angry words. (Generally followed by at .) 5. To catch eagerly at a proposal or offer; to jump at or accept an offer readily. To snap off : 1. Transitive: (1) To break suddenly. (2) To bite suddenly. IMG:content-1646.png:[blocks in formation] "He had no sooner said out his say, but up rises a cunning snap , then at the board."-L'Estrange. 6. The spring-catch of a bracelet, book-clasp, purse, reticule, . 7. A sudden and severe interval or spell. (Applied to weather.) "If we are to be 'interned' for a cold snap , it will be a pleasure to think of this Tuesday's sport."- Field , Jan. 9, 1886. 8. A crisp kind of gingerbread-nut or small cake. *9. A scrap, a fragment, a morsel. "Alms of learning, here a snap , there a piece of knowledge." - Fuller : Holy and Profane State , V. xiv. 1. 10. A snack, a slight refection. "Two hearty meals that might have been mistaken for dinners, if he had not declared them to be snaps ."-Geo. Eliot : Janet's Repentance , ch. i.