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snake in the grass - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

  • ️Mon Jan 16 2012

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Calque of Latin latet anguis in herbā (literally “a snake hides in the grass”), from Eclogue III by the Roman poet Virgil (traditionally 70 – 19 B.C.E.).[1][2][3] Compare Dutch addertje onder het gras.

snake in the grass (plural snakes in the grass)

  1. (derogatory, informal) A hidden enemy.
    Synonym: backstabber

    • 1906, Horatio Alger, Jr., “The Iron Works Affair”, in Randy of the River: Or The Adventures of a Young Deckhand (Rise in Life Series), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 57:

      The trouble is, I trusted him too much from the start. He has proved to be a snake in the grass.

    • 1914, William MacLeod Raine, “‘An Optimistic Guy’”, in A Daughter of the Dons: A Story of New Mexico To-day, New York, N.Y.: G. W. Dillingham Company, →OCLC, page 71:

      Is he not here to throw us out—a thief, a spy, a snake in the grass?

    • 1973 June, Charlie Daniels, “Uneasy Rider”, performed by Charlie Daniels, New York, N.Y.: Kama Sutra Records, →OCLC:

      He's a snake in the grass, I tell you guys / He may look dumb but that's just a disguise / He's a mastermind in the ways of espionage.

    • 2008 November 21, Bruce Crumley, “Which Woman will Lead France’s Socialists?”, in Time‎[1], New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2012-01-16:

      Following her presidential defeat, [Ségolène] Royal stunned many observers by publicly dumping Socialist Party leader François Hollande – her companion and the father of her four children – and announcing she'd seek his post during the current election. To some, that made Royal the symbol of the strong, modern woman in politics; to others, it cast her as the classic snake in the grass.

  1. ^ Virgil (1930) “[Eclogue] III”, in H[enry] Rushton Fairclough, transl., Virgil […], volumes I (Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid I–VI), London: William Heinemann; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, pages 26–27, lines 92–93: “Qui legitis flores et humi nascentia fraga, / frigidus, o pueri, fugite hine, latet anguis in herba ― Ye who cull flowers and low-growing strawberries, away from here, lads; a chill snake lurks in the grass.”
  2. ^ “a snake in the grass” under “snake, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  3. ^ “snake in the grass, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary.