Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To glide or slide like a reptile. See Synonyms at slide.
- v. To walk with a sliding or shuffling gait.
- v. To slip and slide, as on a loose or uneven surface.
- v. To cause to slither.
- n. A slithering movement or gait.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Slippery: same as slidder.
- n. A limestone rubble; angular fragments or screes of limestone.
- To slide: same as slidder.
- n. In archery, a minute longitudinal split in a bow.
- To suffer a minute longitudinal split: said of a bow.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. Prov. Eng. To slide; to glide.
WordNet 3.0
- v. to pass or move unobtrusively or smoothly
Etymologies
- From Middle English slitheren, alteration of sliddren ("to slither, creep"), from Old English slidrian ("to slip, slide, slither"), from Proto-Germanic *slidrianan (“to slide, slither”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleidh- (“to slip”). Cognate with Dutch slidderen ("to slip, wriggle, slither"). More at slide. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English slethren, variant of sliddren, from Old English slidrian, frequentative of slīdan, to slide. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“There's no shadow of the world dark enough for them to kind of slither around in.”
“If guests want to move from room to room, most people wait patiently or "slither" gracefully between the guests”
“Sure enough, less than a minute later, I felt the hair follicles on my scalp slither and the familiar tingling that told me my hair was growing back.”
“But still, they were only heart-stopping inches away from him and from Kate, who continued to slither through the network of wet steel toward the far side of the bridge.”
“Twisted her other behind her back, all while avoiding the wriggling kicks and thwarting the clever maneuvers designed to slither out of even the tightest holds.”
“Dendra was never still for long; every so often one of the arms would give a little shrug, or the tip of a vine would slither back inside the dome.”
“Dodd is one politician that slithers with the best of them and trust me there are plenty up there that slither real good.”
“He should just slither away like the snake that he is. carrieanne”
“Each time, he comes to court with high-priced, well-known defense attorneys to fight his case and, every time, he manages to slither right under the radar of conviction.”
“When the police chief must slither to council to request another check for a judgment or settlement, it requires him to publicly acknowledge a problem and exposes him to the wrath of superiors and the public”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘slither’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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movement (slow)
words describing slow action or movement
( open list, randomness, descriptive )
related:
http://www.wordnik.co...creep, crawl, plod, slouch, idle, lumber, tiptoe, bend, amble, mosey, saunter, loiter and 117 more...
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LIT - Odyssey - key words and phrases
Key words of the Odyssey by Homer in English including all those famous repeating epitethons like
"bright-eyed Athene"
"wine-dark sea"
"rosy-fingered dawn"
"long suf...yearling, wild celery, Wain, Themis, talon, slither, sedge, sea eagle, scurf, rile, prevaricate, poplar tree and 732 more...
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LIT - Iliad - key words and protagonists
depict, delegation, daughter, Dardanus, Dardanian, Dardan, Hellespont, cupbearer, Crete, Cretan, Creon, copulate and 713 more...
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Words the sound like their meaning
love, hate, butterfly, whisper, shout, boil, simmer, glide, kiss, wisp, hum, hammer and 30 more...
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Words you were amazed to hear in a song
Amazed… or awestruck.
You might want to leave a comment with title and artist somewhere. Thanks.fuligin, lictor, slither, heinous, stigma, penance, conciliation, Urth, lino, acquiesce, halo halo, bo peep and 62 more...
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I am : moving
Words to describe gait and movement.
walk, run, trot, jog, canter, gallop, skip, crawl, slink, slither, amble, trundle and 69 more...
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Helen Edmundson's list
Helen's favourite and interesting words: please add yours!
susurrus, serendipity, slither, squishy, terrapin, delectable, ticklish, barracuda, tangled, resonance, spotted, florentine and 4 more...
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Words to use more often
incommensurable, squalid, sordid, abscond, deranged, sagacity, enthralling, noctivagant, imperturbable, slither, sycophantic, ineffable and 2 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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reginaterra's Words
purl, blow, squish, andean, generality, adaptation, lush, pack, filter, acquiesce, abstraction, sweet and 508 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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Best words in Beatles songs
kaleidoscope, plasticine, porters, tangerine, marmalade, cellophane, turnstile, marshmallow, lingers, slither, restless, limitless and 91 more...
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All things Snake-Like
Any words or phrases having to do with snakes.
hiss, slither, serpent, coil, fangs, snake, cobra, viper, devil, strike
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kad's Words
caliph, sylvain, slither, rebbe, sverdrup, vapid, onus, atavistic, cathexis, acathexis, kludge, lithe and 97 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for slither.
ruzuzu Also, note the Firefly/Buffyness of the visuals. Mar 7, 2012
ruzuzu "n. In archery, a minute longitudinal split in a bow." --CD&C Mar 6, 2012
chained_bear Yes. Yes, it is. Oct 26, 2007
sonofgroucho Isn't this a lovely little word? Oct 26, 2007