All 8 Uses

serpent
in
Snow Crash
(Auto-generated)

And that afterward, languages have always had an innate tendency to diverge and become mutually incomprehensible-that this tendency is, as he put it, coiled like a serpent around the human brainstem.†
Chpt 27-28

serpent = snake
The etymology of 'Tannit' proposed by Cross is: feminine of 'tannin,' which would mean 'the one of the serpent.'†
Chpt 29-30
Furthermore, Asherah carried a second epithet in the Bronze Age, 'dat batni,' also 'the one of the serpent?†
Chpt 29-30
Her symbol is a serpent coiling about a tree or staff—the caduceus.†
Chpt 29-30
Associated with serpents.†
Chpt 29-30 *

serpents = snakes
According to this interpretation, the king was enticed away from the path of righteousness by the cult of El, with its associated worship of Asherah-who is commonly associated with serpents, and whose symbol is a tree.†
Chpt 29-30
There's that serpent again.†
Chpt 35-36

serpent = snake
Some strains stay in the peripheral nervous system, but other strains head like a bullet for the central nervous system and take up permanent residence in the cells of the brain-coiling around the brainstem like a serpent around a tree.†
Chpt 55-56

Definitions:

(1) (serpent)
a snake
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
For less common senses of "serpent", see a comprehensive dictionary.