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Snail vs Clam - What's the difference?

snail | clam |

As nouns the difference between snail and clam

is that snail is any of very many animals (either hermaphroditic or nonhermaphroditic), of the class Gastropoda, having a coiled shell while clam is a bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; as, the long clam (species: Mya arenaria), the quahog or round clam (Venus mercenaria), the sea clam or hen clam (species: Spisula solidissima), and other species of the United States. The name is said to have been given originally to the species: Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.

As verbs the difference between snail and clam

is that snail is to move or travel very slowly while clam is to dig for clams.

snail

English

(wikipedia snail) (Helicidae)

Noun

(en noun)
  • Any of very many animals (either hermaphroditic or nonhermaphroditic), of the class Gastropoda , having a coiled shell.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=7 citation , passage=‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’}}
  • (informal, by extension) A slow person; a sluggard.
  • (engineering) A spiral cam, or a flat piece of metal of spirally curved outline, used for giving motion to, or changing the position of, another part, as the hammer tail of a striking clock.
  • (military, historical) A tortoise or testudo; a movable roof or shed to protect besiegers.
  • * Vegetius (in translation)
    • They had also all manner of gynes [engines]
  • The pod of the snail clover.

    • Derived terms

    * snail mail * snail's pace

    See also

    * heliciculture * slug

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To move or travel very slowly

    • Anagrams

    * * *

    clam

    English

    (wikipedia clam)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; as, the long clam (, a huge East Indian bivalve.
  • * , chapter=3
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams' thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. ' Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}
  • Strong pincers or forceps.
  • A kind of vise, usually of wood.
  • (US, slang) A dollar (usually used in the plural). Possibly originating from the term wampum.
  • (slang, derogatory) A Scientologist.
  • * {{quote-newsgroup, year=1998, date=23 February, author=
    • jesparolini, title=CO$ Celebrities: USEFUL IDIOTS citation

    Verb

    (clamm)
  • To dig for clams.

    • Derived terms

    * American jackknife clam * Atlantic jackknife clam * bamboo clam * clam chowder * clamshell * clam up * giant clam * piss clam * razor clam

    See also

    * clammy

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.
    • (Nares)

    Verb

    (clamm)
  • To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.
    • (Nares)

    Etymology 3

    Noun

  • clamminess; moisture
  • * Carlyle
    • The clam of death.

    Verb

    (clamm)
  • To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.
    • (Dryden)
  • To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.
  • * L'Estrange
    • A swarm of wasps got into a honey pot, and there they cloyed and clammed themselves till there was no getting out again.
    (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    * ----