snail's pace

English

Alternative forms

• snail pace

Etymology

From the fact that snails move very slowly.

Noun

snail's pace

1. (informal) A frustratingly slow rate of speed.

   My grandmother drives her car at a snail's pace.

   • 1952 July, W. R. Watson, “Sankey Viaduct and Embankment”, in Railway Magazine, page 487:

     He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure."

Usage notes

Generally restricted to the phrase at a snail's pace.

Related terms

• slow as molasses
• slow as molasses in January
• slow as a snail
• walking pace

Translations

a frustratingly slow speed

Afrikaans: slakkepas Catalan: pas de tortuga m (literally “pace of a tortoise”), pas de bou m (literally “pace of a cow”) Danish: sneglefart c Dutch: slakkengang (nl) Faroese: snigilsferð Finnish: etanan vauhti French: à pas de tortue (fr) (literally “at the pace of a tortoise”) (adverb) Galician: a paso de tartaruga (literally “at the pace of a tortoise”) (adverb) German: Schneckentempo (de) n Icelandic: hægagangur (is) m Irish: teacht an tseilide m Italian: a passo di lumaca, a passo di tartaruga (literally “at the pace of a tortoise”) (adverb) Japanese: 牛歩 (ja) (gyūho, literally “pace of a cow”) Korean: 달팽이 걸음 (dalpaeng'i georeum) Macedonian: како полжав (kako polžav) Norwegian: Bokmål: sneglefart m Nynorsk: sniglefart Polish: żółwim krokiem (pl) (adverb) Portuguese: a passo de caracol (adverb) Russian: черепаший темп m (čerepašij temp, literally “pace of a tortoise”) Spanish: a paso de tortuga (literally “with the step of a tortoise”) (adverb) Swedish: snigelfart (sv) c

Anagrams

• Pascalines, Plaisances, Plasencias, apsaclines, plaisances, snail paces, spalacines