snakehead

English

Etymology

From snake +‎ head.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (General Australian):(file)

Noun

snakehead (plural snakeheads)

  1. (zoology) A family of perciform fish native to Africa and Asia, Channidae.
    • 2015, Eka Kurniawan, translated by Labodalih Sembiring, Man Tiger, Verso, page 1:
      Through this plantation ran a creek full of snakeheads and eels, its overflow swelling the swamp around it.
  2. (slang) A Chinese smuggler, especially one who smuggles people.
    • 2008, Frozen River, 00:33:10:
      Why would they want to run? -- To get away from the snakeheads. -- What's that? -- The snakeheads pay to get them here and then they gotta work off what they owe.
    • 2011, David Kyle, ‎Rey Koslowski, Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives (page 190)
      […] but snakeheads involved in air smuggling may venture into sea smuggling. A thirty-two-year-old housewife from Fuzhou who left China by boat alleged that her snakehead was involved in both.
  3. (US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A black person.
  4. A showy perennial plant, Chelone glabra, found in North American marshlands; the turtlehead
  5. (US, rail transport) A loose, bent-up end of one of the strap rails, or flat rails, formerly used on American railroads.
  6. (rare) Alternative form of snake's head, various not closely related species of flowering plant, including Fritillaria meleagris.

Derived terms

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