snakeling

snake +‎ -ling

snakeling (plural snakelings)

1. A small or young snake.
   • 1894, Rudyard Kipling, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

     But just as Teddy was stooping, something flinched a little in the dust, and a tiny voice said: "Be careful. I am death!" It was Karait, the dusty brown snakeling that lies for choice on the dusty earth; and his bite is as dangerous as the cobra's. But he is so small that nobody thinks of him, and so he does the more harm to people.

• snakelet