the.com/slither
the move of a creature that ditched legs and somehow got faster
means To move with a smooth, sliding, sinuous motion along a surface, the way a snake or eel travels.
from From Middle English slidder, 'to slip or slide,' itself rooted in Old English slidrian, a frequentative of slidan — to slide. So 'slither' is essentially 'sliding, again and again,' the verb wriggling its own way into being. It runs in the same slippery word-family as 'slide' and 'sled,' and the spelling drifted toward the 'th' sound over time, leaving us with a word that hisses a little when you say it.
- no legs
- snakes lost limbs over evolutionary time
- side push
- scales grip ground asymmetrically to propel forward
- sidewinding
- desert snakes throw their body sideways across sand
- belly muscles
- hundreds of vertebrae flex for each motion
- speed feat
- black mambas slither up to twelve mph
for instance
sidewinder rattlesnake — desert snake that moves sideways in s-curves, found in southwestern usa and mexico