snell
/snɛl/
snell adjective: quick, smart; sharp, active, brisk or nimble; lively. Also the alternative form of snelly.
Adjective
snell (comparative sneller, superlative snellest)
- Quick, smart; sharp, active, brisk or nimble; lively.
- That in ilk action, wise and snell / You may shaw Manly fire.1720, Allan Ramsay, Edinburgh's Salutation to Lord Carnarvon
- That horny-handed, snell, peremptory little man.1852, John Brown, Rab and his Friends
- Quick-witted; clever.
- With all this heavy artillery, somewhat slow and cumbrous, on great questions, he had no want, when he was speaking off-hand, of quick, snell remark, often witty and full of spirit, and often too unexpected, like lightning—flashing, smiting, and gone.1861, John Brown, Horæ Subsecivæ
- Harsh, severe, or stinging.
- Conscience is a rough lad, I grant you, and I am keen and snell also; but never mind, take his advice, and you’ll be some credit to your freens yet, ye scoonrel.1833, Michael Scott, Tom Cringle's Log
- Fortunately, we were well prepared for such an emergency, and being sheltered in a safe creek, we roofed the ship with canvas against the snow; and so, with land on every side of us, plenty of moss fuel ashore, a good stock of provisions, and firearms for hunting, we held our trouble, and passed...1881, Robert Buchanan, God and the Man
Noun
snell (plural snells)
Verb
snell (third-person singular simple present snells, present participle snelling, simple past and past participle snelled)
- To tie a hook to the end of a fishing line with a snell knot.
- Can you show me how to snell a hook?
Proper noun capitalized: Snell
Snell
Also used as
snell is also the alternative form of snelly.
Forms of snell
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | sneller |
| superlative | snellest |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more snell |
| superlative | most snell |
| Noun | |
| plural | snells |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | snells |
| present participle | snelling |
| past participle | snelled |
| past | snelled |
Origin of snell
Inherited from Middle English snell (“quick, fast”) from Old English snell, snel (“lively, quick”) from Proto-West Germanic *snell, from Proto-Germanic *snellaz (“active, swift, brisk”). Akin to Dutch snel (“fast, quick”), German Low German snell (“quick”), German schnell (“quick, swift”), Yiddish שנעל (shnel, “quick, swift”), Italian snello (“quick, nimble”), Old French esnel, isnel (“snell”), and Occitan isnel, irnel (“snell”)), Old Norse snjallr (“skilful, excellent”) (whence Danish snild (“clever”)).
Unknown
English surname, from the adjective snell. See also Sneller, Snelling. Also Americanized from German Schnell and Dutch snel, of the same meaning.
Words formed from snell
Words that rhyme with snell
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- hell
- hotel
- repel
- smell
- cartel
- dell
- pell
- quell
- as well
- au naturel
- dwell
- expel
- fell
- gel
- La Rochelle
- lol
- oversell
- stell
- wel
- ABDL
- dispel
- ell
- kell
- knell
- mell
- personnel
- quenelle
- undersell
- yell
- belle
- death knell
- del
- farewell
- flotel
- foretell
- gazelle
- impel
- mademoiselle
- marcel
- mel
- morell
- Moselle
- motel
- NFL
- overswell
- propel
- pucelle
- rappel
Questions about snell
- What does snell mean?
- Snell means quick, smart; sharp, active, brisk or nimble; lively.
- What part of speech is snell?
- Snell can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce snell?
- Snell is pronounced /snɛl/.
Words near snell in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: snell (page history and authors); Snell (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-snell.wav.
Cite this entry: “snell.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/snell. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.