slither

present singular third person slithers · participle present slithering · participle past slithered · past slithered

1. intransitiveTo move about smoothly and from side to side.

   [Indiana:] Wave it at anything that slithers. [Marion:] The whole place is slithering!

   1981, Lawrence Kasdan, Raiders of the Lost Ark

   1 more example

   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.

   2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 22 May 2024

2. intransitiveTo slide.

   Some snow slides recorded have exceeded a million tons and slithered down the mountain-side at a speed of 60 miles an hour.

   1954 February, Trevor Holloway, “Canada's Transcontinental Routes”, in Railway Magazine, page 128

   1 more example

   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.

   2003, J. Flash, An American Savage

1. archaicSlithery; slippery.

plural slithers

1. countableuncountableA limestone rubble.
2. countablenonstandarduncountableA sliver.
3. collectivecountableuncountableA group of snakes.

   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.

   1926, Eric Walrond, Tropic Death, Boni & Liveright, page 201

   2 more examples

   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.

   2025 March 6, Cameron Kiszla, “‘White Lotus’ snakebite scene was realer than you thought”, in KTLA 5, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2026

   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.

   2025, Jamie Lobley, Ge-O Knights: Gunslingers, page 87