Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) devious, underhand, cunning; thus snakiness n., deviousness, cunning; also adv. (see cite 1983).

1883		Daily News 19 Feb. in Ware (1909) 227/2: Snakes also have the vice of developing mendacity in the human-race so conspicuously that in the Far West ‘snaky’ is the term applied to a tale more vivid than probable.
1899		Crissie 74: ‘I see her snakey phiz and spindleshanks there every time I go’.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1914		Day Book (Chicago) 24 June 8/1: The snaky patrol noiselessly completed its round.
1927		‘Max Brand’ Pleasant Jim 44: Someone hooked up with that snaky devil, Tom Rizdal, that smart, gun-running hound!
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 126: A spot of the old snaky work.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 521: There was something snaky about that guy.
1940		Wodehouse Eggs, Beans & Crumpets ((1951)) 18: [I]t would be well to proceed with snakiness and caution.
1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 266: O’Phelan buttoned up his coat, turned on his heel, an’ stalked off, saying, It’s snaky-minded a man would want to be to go safe along a road with a Mailmurra.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 85: This totally unforeseen snakiness was the result of his having been [...] a member of the police force.
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘Noah’s Ark’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 100: The snakey bastard, chasing you off like that.
1973		D. Williamson What If You Died Tomorrow (1977) I i: I’ve never met a poofter who wasn’t manipulative, predatory, devious and snaky.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 31: [A] reputation for being snakey cunning and a terrible fibber.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 249: At issue was the snaky sales contract [...] configured so as to oblige you to pay interest on the interest itself.
2000		W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 628: Ain’t you a snaky skanky bitch!
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 179: ‘I suppose I was being a bit snakey about it’.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] Don’t be conspicuous but don’t be snaky, either.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 207: Just come out and ask it, like. You don’t have to be snakey.

2. (Aus.) irritable, tetchy.

1915		Sport (Adelaide) 29 Jan. 5/7: Ray H and Butcher C did get snaky when their names appeared in Sport.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: snaky. Angry (eg to turn snaky, irritable).
1938		F. Anthony ‘Gus Tomlins’ in Me And Gus (1977) 125: Don’t get snaky.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 86: Now lay off, sport. [...] Don’t go snaky on the kid.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 124: One night though she had been a bit snaky.
1964		N.B. Harvey Any Old Dollars, Mister? 108: This warden got awful snaky and said some terrible things about people having no respect.
1972		A. Chipper Aussie Swearers Guide 66: The same cocky will get even more snaky (angry) if you name his place of orighin as one of these very rural outposts: The Never-Never, Woop Woop, Back of Bourke, Snake Gully or Beyond the Black Stump.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 254: Possibly the plant recognised Sneed for what he was now, for despite weighing about a stone and a half more he backed off. ‘Don’t get snaking, no need to get snaky.’.
1981		J. Charles Black Billy Tea 39: The men get short and snaky / And they have their little tiffs.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 76: LES. What appened to the dead cert, ya galah? DAVO. Doan get snakey with me.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

3. unpleasant, sinister.

1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 200: It was a snaky feeling like maybe someone would have [...] being alone on a desert island.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 465: When I saw poor Shrimp Haggerty laid out in the coffin, I got a damn snaky feeling.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 273: This snaky dude sidled up and mumbled something.

4. (Aus.) jealous.

1951

Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 263: ‘Not but what I won’t like the place a lot better when your Yankee friends have finished using it as first base.’ ‘Snaky?’ she asked, looking at him judicially, ‘or just gone troppo?’.