to snake out

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

To drag out; to haul out, as a snake from its hole. A farmer in clearing land, attaches a chain to a stump or log, whereby to draw it out; this he calls, snaking it out. Maj. Downing says, in speaking of a person who fell into the river:


We snaked him out of that scrape as slick as a whistle.--Letters, p. 14.

I went down again and found the cow as dead as a herrin'. We skinned her and snaked her out of the barn upon the snow.--Evidence before a Court in Boston, Daily Adv., March, 1848.

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