Now dial. [SNAIL sb.1]

1

  1.  A snail-shell; a snail.

2

1672.  C. Hoole, trans. Comenius Vis. World, xxxii. The Snail carrieth about her Snailhorn [testa].

3

1747.  [see b].

4

1820.  Clare, Rural Life (ed. 3), 10. The snail-horn searching, or the mossy nest.

5

1828–.  in dial. glossaries (Yks., Northampt., Leic., Lancs.).

6

  b.  Snail-horn stone (see quot.).

7

1747.  Hooson, Miner’s Dict., U j b, Snailborn Stone is a course Stone, having mixt Knotts within it, much like Snailhorns when it is broken, and hard to break.

8

  2.  (See quot. and next.) ? Obs.

9

1749.  W. Ellis, Exper. Impr. Sheep, 94. If … a lamb is gelt at a week or fortnight old, it will cause it to have a thin, short, and what we in Hertfordshire call a Snail-Horn.

10

  So Snail-horned a. (See quot.) ? Obs.

11

1787.  W. H. Marshall, E. Norfolk (1795), II. 388. Snail-horned, having short, down-hanging horns, with blunt points, and somewhat bent, in the usual form of the snail; spoken of cattle.

12