Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US Und.) to arrest.

1859

Matsell Vocabulum 82: snaked Arrested.

2. to take in a surreptitious manner, to pilfer, to sneak.

1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 5 Feb. n.p.: The Whip Wants to Know [...] If James, Mathew, Charles and a few more intend to pay [...] for the bread they snaked not long since.
1867		Swindon Advertiser 11 Nov. 4/1: Fagin’s Academy [...] I’d like to tgeach sleight of hand as well as speech. Something more than ‘frisking till,’ ‘snaking skin, ’ or ‘faking fob’.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 179: They found, to their mortification, not only that their trick had been discovered, but, also, that their tools had been ‘snaked’.
1883		Phila. Press 2810 4: Unless some legal loophole can be found through which an evasion or extension can be successfully snaked [F&H].
1890		Kipling ‘A Ballad of Burial’ in Departmental Ditties 133: I trust / You will find excuse to ‘snake / Three days’ casual on the bust’.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 32: You coppers got to help him. I ain’t going to have the Eye people snake in all the loose coin; I give it to you straight.
1913		G.D. Chase ‘Lists From Maine’ in DN IV i 5: snake, v. To take slyly or stealthily.
1928		R. Carr Rampant Age 27: You got plenty of gas. I seen you snake five gallons outa the tank in the barn.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 84: I gotta snake it out of him like he had the reason under one of his tooth fillings.
1995		Eble Campus Sl. Dec.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] We must have hooked up on [to a fish] at least 20 occasions but every time they were snaked by a Noah.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 224: [C]hatting about how Gotti sneaked me.

3. in fig use of sense 1, to take someone, to lead.

1850		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 10 Aug. n.p.: A well-known clergymen was snaked from his hiding place and propelled home with a number of [...] well-applied kicks.
c.1905		J. Furphy Buln-Buln and the Brolga (1948) 🌐 An’ with that, M’Gregor he grabs me by the sleeve, an’ snakes me out to a pub.

4. (US und.) for a confidence trickster to move the ball or ‘pea’ from beneath one shell to another when a member of the public has bet correctly on its initial position.

1887

Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 24 Dec. 12/4: ‘Of course he “snakes” the ball out the moment he shows where it is, or was, and then some sucker bets on it’.

5. (US und.) to bribe, to pay off.

1896

F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 60: ‘[W]e snake de main bull o’ de town an’ start t’ play de shells’.

6. to steal; thus snaking n.

1953		B. Behan Scarperer (1966) 63: We had him down for some snaking a bit of a hoist. Cigarettes down the quay. [...] They lifted them out of the back of a lorry.
1989		P. Munro Sl. U.
1995		C. Hiaasen Stormy Weather 82: Bill Knapp’s gonna snake the bronco cigaret account.

7. (also snake on) to flirt with and/or steal someone else’s date [snake n.¹ (5)].

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 200: Snake Take someone else’s date away.
1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 66: Carol tried to snake my date last night.
1976		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 5: snake – to show interest in a member of the opposite sex, to flirt.
1986		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 9: snake – show sexual interest in: Steve is snaking on every girl in my Drama 35 class.
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 9: snake [...] When Mary snaked my formal date I was left all alone.

8. (also snake on, snake out) to cheat.

1877		Dodge City Times (KS) 17 Nov. 8/2: Bill [...] liked to snake in the greenies.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 28: We can’t trust a coolie. You could snake on us, man.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 362: To snake is to cheat, especially when gambling.
2003		Dizzee Rascal in Vice Mag. at Hyperdub.com 🌐 People start snaking each other out, people start setting each other up. It starts getting real.
2011		J. Cornish Attack the Block [film script] 42: HI-HATZ You tryin’ to snake me?

9. (N.Z. prison) to hide away, to secrete.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 171/2: snake v. to hide something.

10. (UK black/gang) to betray, to inform against, to plot against.

2018-20

T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Snake - betray, inform on, conspire against.