Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A length of fine threadlike material, such as monofilament or gut, that connects a fishhook to a heavier line; a length of leader.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Active; brisk; nimble; spirited.
- Keen; piercing; sharp; severe; hard: as, a snell frost.
- n. A short piece of gut, gimp, or sea-grass on which fishhooks are tied; a snood. The best material for snells is silkworm-gut, as it is light, strong, and nearly invisible.
- To tie or fasten to a line or gut, as a hook for angling.
Wiktionary
- adj. Active, brisk or nimble; Lively.
- adj. Quick, sudden; Sharp.
- adj. Quick-witted; Witty.
- adj. Harsh; Severe.
- n. A short line of horsehair, gut, monofilament, etc., by which a fishhook or lure is attached to a longer (and usually heavier) line.
- v. To tie a hook to the end of a fishing line with a snell knot.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Archaic or Prov. Eng. & Scot. Active; brisk; nimble; quick; sharp.
- n. A short line of horsehair, gut, etc., by which a fishhook is attached to a longer line.
Etymologies
- Origin Unknown. (Wiktionary)
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The Uni knot snell is an easy way to snell your hook without having to cut a leader.”
“Assuming a woebegone air I told my uncle that 'Auld Reekie' suited me poorly, and that the climate was too 'snell' for my southern constitution.”
“Several days in the mornings, before R.L. Stevenson was able to face the somewhat "snell" air of the hills, I had long walks with the old gentleman, when we also had long talks on many subjects -- the liberalising of the Scottish Church, educational reform, etc.; and, on one occasion, a statement of his reason, because of the subscription, for never having become an elder.”
Robert Louis Stevenson: a record, an estimate, and a memorial
“I am planning on just fishing a worm on a snell rig.”
“Interesting question, think you and other Tory apologists need to waken up and snell the coffee.”
The Guardian: VAT at 20%: A very deliberate choice | Editorial
“Let's not forget, Toyota employs around 200,000 Americans in the U.S., and considering our economy, we need Toyota to survive. coventry snell”
“Probably the most popular of all trolling rigs involves just a simple spinner, some beads, and various hook riggings on a 3-foot snell.”
“Bulluts sped past President Hamid Karzai and black smoke and the snell of gunpowder filled the air when Taliban militants struck Afghanistan's most important military parade on sunday.”
“Sharrkan crave at him like a lion angry grim, mounted on a courser like a wild gazelle flying snell and slim; and coming nigh to him made the spear he hent to shake as it were a darting snake, and recited these couplets,”
“Then they displayed Shahrazad in the third dress and the fourth and the fifth and she became as she were a Bán-branch snell or a thirsting gazelle, lovely of face and perfect in attributes of grace, even as saith of her one in these couplets121: —”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘snell’.
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[Open] Correctly-spelled words that l...
Thanks to everyone who added to this list. (I moved it to a new URL, so all the words added on the first day are credited to me—sorry about that.)
(Here’s the original list with a slo...orignal, refect, collum, lightening, manakin, neumatic, mutch, miosis, radicle, tryptic, kyack, apatite and 119 more...
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
syzygy, systyle, systematology, systatic, syssitia, syrtic, systaltic, syrt, syrinx, syphilomania, syphilology, syntrierarch and 1593 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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Under The Kilt
Anything related to Scottish culture, cuisine, language, history and so on. Does not include Gaelic words unless acceptable (roughly speaking!) in a wider sense.
brae, machair, loch, burn, inverness, shieling, camanachd, shinty, diddy, bhoy, ghillie, brownie and 393 more...
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Word Gems
foist, coercion, abecedism, abiectic, abigeus, abiogenesis, ablaut, thunderstruck, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, filagree, blotto and 196 more...
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Words I Should Use In English Papers
exactly what the title said
snell, kitling, felo-de-se, ratch, salina, triskaidekaphobia, weltanschauung, literatim
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.pages
tamerlane, rickett, bastan, barnum, byssus, carys, lyris, vidler, morphos, leafwing, phaon, scudder and 238 more...
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Lovely Letterforms
didot, perpetua, palatino lynotype, bembo, grotesque, garamond, trebuchet, verdana, helvetica, gill sans, rosewood, caslon and 9 more...
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swipper
a venture into the indo-european roots weip- (to turn, twist or wrap) and nem- ( to divide, distribute or allot) exploring their paradoxical relationships along with other words between them in spe...
swipper, lightsome, quiver, snell, volant, epenthesis, tith, wight, flit, deft, yare, legerity and 41 more...
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Potentially Useful Yet Less Common Mo...
Scrabble usefulness?
mulct, prink, louche, dreck, sloom, brank, stirp, soss, gowl, snell, snite, pule and 3 more...
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catch-all
this will do until i save enough that i need to sort them
otiose, peripatetic, ersatz, pusillanimous, fustian, persiflage, discursive, impecunious, snell, irrepressible, exultant, rapturous and 6 more...
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lovely
opaline, bijou, chantilly, mousselline, marmoreal, selene, saphire, hirundine, duende, plenilune, galatea, lambent and 7 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for snell.
leaden The item described by the CD&C is also known as a snood, sneed, or sed. See also snod and cockernonny. Nov 8, 2011
bilby Scots - sharp, severe. Dec 9, 2007