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slither

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English slitheren, alteration of slideren (“to slither, creep”), from Old English slidrian (“to slip, slide, slither”), from Proto-West Germanic *slidrōn (“to slide, slither”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃sleydʰ- (“to slip”), equivalent to slide +‎ -er (frequentative suffix). Cognate with Dutch slidderen (“to slip, wriggle, slither”), German schlittern (“to slither, skid”). More at slide.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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slither (third-person singular simple present slithers, present participle slithering, simple past and past participle slithered)

  1. (intransitive) To move about smoothly and from side to side.
    • 1981, Lawrence Kasdan, Raiders of the Lost Ark:
      [Indiana:] Wave it at anything that slithers.
      [Marion:] The whole place is slithering!
    • 2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation‎[1], archived from the original on 22 May 2024:
      She also had a map of the building, not that it was very large, and she'd memorized the layout. The guard station would be right around the corner, and there ought to be a counter about the height of a half-wall looking out over the corridor with only a bulletin board on the opposite wall. She crouched down, and slithered left.
  2. (intransitive) To slide.
    • 1954 February, Trevor Holloway, “Canada's Transcontinental Routes”, in Railway Magazine, page 128:
      Some snow slides recorded have exceeded a million tons and slithered down the mountain-side at a speed of 60 miles an hour.
    • 2003, J. Flash, An American Savage:
      I bent down and with both hands I scooped up as much of this pissshit as I could. The green and brown clump felt like Jello as it dripped down all over my clothes. It was slithering through inbetween[sic] my fingers.

Derived terms

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Category English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sleydʰ- not found

Translations

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Adjective

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slither

  1. (archaic) Slithery; slippery.

Noun

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slither (countable and uncountable, plural slithers)

  1. A limestone rubble.
  2. (nonstandard, see usage notes) A sliver.
  3. (collective) A group of snakes.
    • 2025 March 6, Cameron Kiszla, “‘White Lotus’ snakebite scene was realer than you thought”, in KTLA 5‎[2], archived from the original on 26 July 2026:
      On Sunday night’s episode of “The White Lotus,” Walton Goggins’ character Rick throws open the doors to cages containing a slither of snakes, resulting in another character being hospitalized for a snakebite.
    • 1926, Eric Walrond, Tropic Death‎[3], Boni & Liveright, page 201:
      And from the hedge came the silken slither of snakes about to lather with foam and strike some legless sheep or ox left by the mutinous pack.
    • 2025, Jamie Lobley, Ge-O Knights: Gunslingers‎[4], page 87:
      He listened for the retreating slithers of snakes and plop of small biting insects falling dead to the ground - things that were silent to most ears but not his own.

Usage notes

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  • The use of slither to mean sliver, which is prevalent especially in Britain (where th-fronting is becoming more and more prevalent), is considered by many to be an error, though at least one major dictionary merely labels it "informal".

See also

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Anagrams

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