Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various long-billed shorebirds of the family Scolopacidae, especially the widely distributed species Gallinago gallinago.
  • noun A shot, especially a gunshot, from a concealed place.
  • intransitive verb To shoot at individuals from a concealed place.
  • intransitive verb To shoot snipe.
  • intransitive verb To make malicious, underhand remarks or attacks.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The Lake Tahoe trout, Salmo clarkii henshawi, found in western Nevada and neighboring parts of California.
  • To shoot at the enemy, or at isolated soldiers or outposts, in a casual way, as opportunity offers. See sniping.
  • To shoot (one of the enemy) from ambush or in a casual way, and not in a regular battle.
  • Same as nose, 5.
  • To hunt snipe.
  • noun A bird of the genus Scolopax in a former broad sense.
  • noun A fool; a blockhead; a simpleton; a goose.
  • noun A half-smoked cigar found on the street.
  • noun (See also double-snipe, half-snipe, horsefoot-snipe, jack-snipe, martin-snipe, quail-snipe, rail-snipe, robin-snipe, rock-snipe, shore-snipe, whole-snipe.)
  • noun A sharp, clever answer; a sarcasm.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To shoot or hunt snipe.
  • intransitive verb To shoot at detached men of an enemy's forces at long range, esp. when not in action; -- often with at.
  • intransitive verb to aim petty or snide criticisms at (a person) in his absence.
  • transitive verb To shoot at (detached men of an enemy's force) at long range, esp. when not in action.
  • transitive verb To nose (a log) to make it drag or slip easily in skidding.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of limicoline game birds of the family Scolopacidæ, having a long, slender, nearly straight beak.
  • noun rare A fool; a blockhead.
  • noun the dunlin; the jacksnipe.
  • noun See Jacksnipe.
  • noun See under Quail.
  • noun the knot.
  • noun See in the Vocabulary.
  • noun any sandpiper.
  • noun [Prov. Eng.] the marsh harrier.
  • noun the tattler.
  • noun the dunlin; the green and the common European sandpipers.
  • noun See Rock snipe, under Rock.
  • noun the great snipe.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of various limicoline game birds of the genera Gallinago, Lymnocryptes and Coenocorypha in the family Scolopacidae, having a long, slender, nearly straight beak.
  • noun A fool; a blockhead.
  • noun A shot fired from a concealed place.
  • noun slang A cigarette butt.
  • noun naval slang A member of the engineering department on a ship.
  • noun A bottle of wine measuring 0.1875 liters, one fourth the volume of a standard bottle; a quarter bottle or piccolo.
  • noun An animated promotional logo during a television show.
  • verb To shoot at individuals from a concealed place.
  • verb by extension To shoot with a sniper rifle.
  • verb To make malicious, underhand remarks or attacks.
  • verb To watch a timed online auction and place a winning bid at the last possible moment.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb hunt or shoot snipe
  • verb aim and shoot with great precision
  • verb attack in speech or writing
  • noun a gunshot from a concealed location
  • noun Old or New World straight-billed game bird of the sandpiper family; of marshy areas; similar to the woodcocks

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, probably from Old Norse -snīpa (as in mȳrisnīpa, marsh snipe).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English "type of bird", from Old Norse -snipa, in myrisnipa ("moor snipe")

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