[SNAIL sb.1]
1. The shell or house of a snail; = COCHLEA 3.
1530. Palsgr., 272/1. Snayle or snayle shell, lymacon.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 311. They entred … with the sounde of drummes, snayle-shelles, and other like instrumentes of Musicke.
1611. Cotgr., Limace,… any thing that winds or turnes like a Snaile-shell.
1676. Phil. Trans., XI. 594. Turn’d helically like a Snail-shell.
1713. Petiver, Aquat. Anim. Amboinæ, Tab. iv. Valvata,… Small waved Snail-shell.
1775. Ash, Cochlea,… a genus of shell fish, a snail-shell.
1822. J. Parkinson, Outl. Oryctol., 248. The exterior characters of the snail-shells of the present day.
1891. Science-Gossip, XXVII. 18/1. The lower step … bore witness to the frequent visits of the thrushes, for it was covered with broken snail-shells.
b. attrib., as snail-shell pattern; snail-shell medick, (a) heart-clover; (b) snail-plant.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), III. 660. Medicago arabica,… Snailshell Medick.
1855. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., II. 92. The Snail-shell Medick of the South of Europe (Medicago scutellata).
1898. Daily News, 17 Sept., 6/2. Richly braided in a snail-shell pattern.
† 2. = CCOCHLEA 2. Obs.–1
1683. Phil. Trans., XIII. 261. The Small-bones,… the Snail-shell,… have the same figure and … bulk in Infants which they have in men.
