snood

Alternative forms

• snod, sneed

Etymology

From Middle English snod, from Old English snōd (“headdress, fillet, snood”), from Proto-Germanic *snōdō (“rope, string”), from Proto-Indo-European *snoh₁téh₂ (“yarn, thread”), from *sneh₁(i)- (“to twist, wind, weave, plait”). Cognate with Scots snuid (“snood”), Swedish snod, snodd (“twist, twine”). Compare also Old Saxon snōva (“necklace”), Old Norse snúa (“to turn, twist”), snúðr (“a twist, twirl”), English needle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /snuːd/
• Rhymes: -uːd

Noun

snood (plural snoods)

1. A band or ribbon for keeping the hair in place, including the hair-band formerly worn in Scotland and northern England by young unmarried women.
2. A small hairnet or cap worn by women to keep their hair in place.
   • Sir Walter Scott

     And seldom was a snood amid / Such wild, luxuriant ringlets hid.

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 264:

     serious girls with their hair in snoods entered numbers into logbooks […]

3. The flap of red skin on the beak of a male turkey.
   • 2000, Gary Clancy, Turkey Hunting Tactics, page 8

     A fingerlike projection called a snood hangs over the front of the beak. When the tom is alert, the snood constricts and projects vertically as a fleshy bump at the top rear of the beak.

4. A short line of horsehair, gut, monofilament, etc., by which a fishhook is attached to a longer (and usually heavier) line; a snell.
5. A piece of clothing to keep the neck warm; neckwarmer.

Verb

snood (third-person singular simple present snoods, present participle snooding, simple past and past participle snooded)

1. To keep the hair in place with a snood.
   • 1792, Robert Burns, "Tam Lin" (a Scottish popular ballad)

     Janet has kilted her green kirtle
     A little aboon her knee,
     And she has snooded her yellow hair
     A little aboon her bree,

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /snoːt/

• (file)

• Hyphenation: snood

Adjective

snood (comparative snoder, superlative snoodst)

1. villanous and criminal

   een snood plan