freshwater or marine or terrestrial gastropod mollusk usually having an external enclosing spiral shell
"The garden was overrun with tiny snails that had climbed up the fence after a heavy rain."
Any of very many animals (either hermaphroditic or nonhermaphroditic), of the class Gastropoda, having a coiled shell.
"The garden was overrun by snails that had crawled out from under their wet leaves to eat the tender lettuce."
To move or travel very slowly.
"The traffic was moving so slowly that we were crawling along like a snail."
The word "snail" comes from the Old English sneġel, which traces back to the Proto-Germanic root *snagilaz. Related words in other Germanic languages include Low German Snagel and German Schnegel.