snaking

verb

present participle of snake
1
as in lurking
to move about in a sly or secret manner snaking softly through the brush

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in creeping
to move slowly with the body close to the ground commandos snaking through the grass toward the house

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of snaking Fighting along the roughly 780-mile front line snaking through northern, eastern and southern Ukraine has been virtually deadlocked in recent months. — Susie Blann, Chicago Tribune, 4 Oct. 2026 Fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line snaking through northern, eastern and southern Ukraine has been virtually deadlocked in recent months. — ABC News, 3 Oct. 2026 Lincoln Road has the street space to entertain snaking lines of excited locals and visitors. — Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 1 Oct. 2026 This city is already a freaky liminal space full of snaking pathways that are almost incomprehensible. — Jordan Minor, PC Magazine, 18 Sep. 2026 And the talk drew far and away the longest lines of the festival, snaking around four city blocks an hour before showtime. — Marlow Stern, Variety, 17 Sep. 2026 The estate sprawls across 77 acres of pastoral tranquility, with trails snaking through the woods, oak trees towering over lawns, and birdsong filling the air. — Brian Cicioni, Travel + Leisure, 1 Sep. 2026 The Premier League trophy was kept out of the way, not shown off, apart from the blazing cover picture in the souvenir programme which ensured queues snaking through the crowd to purchase this special memento. — Amy Lawrence, New York Times, 22 Aug. 2026 When her foster mom is preparing dinner, Lu sneakily samples from her siblings’ meals, snaking her tongue into each bowl. — Suhauna Hussain, Los Angeles Times, 18 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for snaking
  1. lurking
  2. creeping
  3. sneaking
  4. crawling
  5. sliding
  6. slithering
  7. slipping
Verb
  • That dream came to a screeching halt six years ago, when a sinkhole tore open that revealed an old mine lurking under Hideaway Hills -- forcing more than a dozen families to flee.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 6 Oct. 2026
  • Flanagan’s customary whip pans are here to surprise us with characters lurking outside the frame, but this isn’t a story with many external supernatural threats, and tension doesn’t build.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of lurking
Verb
  • Carr takes a beat to scan the field, no doubt noticing three corners in press and an extra safety creeping toward the line.
    — Nick Baumgardner, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2026
  • But there was something else that was creeping into his head.
    — Andy Martinez, Chicago Tribune, 25 Sep. 2026
Definition of creeping
Verb
  • Imagine sneaking into a math library and combing through every mathematical text ever written.
    — Lyndie Chiou, Scientific American, 22 Sep. 2026
  • The Chiefs placed Royals at tight end on the line, sneaking him across the back of the end zone on a drag route.
    — Sam McDowell, Kansas City Star, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of sneaking
Verb
  • Researchers have developed a paper-thin foot membrane that lets crawling microrobots harvest electricity directly from the ground beneath them, ditching heavy onboard batteries by turning metal and silicon surfaces into an active power source.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Traffic cameras showed that northbound traffic was bumper-to-bumper and crawling along I-35 before being detoured from the highway.
    — Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of crawling
Verb
  • The rooms Every single one of the 75 rooms is ocean-facing, with floor to ceiling sliding glass doors framing the view, and leading to private terraces perched above the mangroves.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 7 Oct. 2026
  • These twin trends—an aging Leninist system sliding toward one-man rule and mounting political inertia in the face of anything that might trigger social unrest—have eroded China’s governance capacity.
    — Carl Minzner, Foreign Affairs, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of sliding
Verb
  • Officials issued the alert Monday after a man shared with police an image appearing to show the dangerous reptile slithering from the thin branch of a tree onto the roof of a backyard shed.
    — Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Perhaps the most striking styles in the lineup stood on curvaceous, sculptural heels resembling slithering snakes.
    — Jaden Thompson, Footwear News, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of slithering
Verb
  • Look a little closer, however, and its chart dominance has been slipping for years.
    — Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, 5 Oct. 2026
  • Golden State trailed by 16 points with 16 minutes remaining, their historic season slipping through their fingers.
    — Marcus Thompson II, New York Times, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of slipping

Browse Nearby Words

snakeskins
snaking
snap
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Cite this Entry

“Snaking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/snaking. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

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