The phrase "dead snake" refers to something or someone that is completely motionless or inactive, similar to how a snake appears when it is dead. It symbolizes a lack of movement, energy, or progress. Full definition
What you choose as a measure of performance — rat tails or dead snakes in these examples — is what you end up getting. (investorfieldguide.com)
For years, the fungus Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola was the suspected culprit behind the disease, but scientists couldn't tell whether the pathogen was causing the skin lesions they were seeing on dead snakes or if the fungus had just taken advantage of lesions that were there from some other cause. (sciencenews.org)
«At present, the standard of practice is no identification at all, a diagnosis from the symptoms, or more rarely identification of dead snakes that victims occasionally bring to the clinic,» says François Chappuis of Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland, who presented the work this week at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual meeting in New Orleans. (newscientist.com)