snail

Any of numerous aquatic or terrestrial gastropod mollusks that typically have a spirally coiled shell, retractile foot, and distinct head.

A slow-moving, lazy, or sluggish person.

To move slowly or lazily, like a snail.

To give the form of a snail-shell to; make spirally winding.

One of many small gastropods.

Specifically— A member of the family Helicidæ in a broad sense; a terrestrial air-breathing mollusk with stalks on which the eyes are situated, and with a spiral or helicoid shell which has no lid or operculum, as the common garden-snail, Helix hortensis, or edible snail, H. pomatia. There are many hundred species, of numerous genera and several subfamilies. In the phrases below are noted some of the common British species which have vernacular names. See Helicidæ, and cuts under Gasteropoda and Pulmonata.

A mollusk like the above, but shell-less or nearly so; a slug.

An aquatic pulmonate gastropod with an operculate spiral shell, living in fresh water; a pond-snail or river-snail; a limneid. See Limnæidæ.

A littoral or marine, not pulmonate, gastropod with a spiral shell like a snail’s; a sea-snail, as a periwinkle or any member of the Littorinidæ; a salt-water snail.

Hence A slow, lazy, stupid person.