SNIPE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Snipe

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noun

Snipe n.

(Zool.) Any one of numerous species of limicoline game birds of the family Scolopacidae, having a long, slender, nearly straight beak. Note: The common, or whole, snipe (Gallinago coelestis) and the great, or double, snipe (Gallinago major), are the most important European species. The Wilson's snipe (Gallinago delicata) (sometimes erroneously called English snipe) and the gray snipe, or dowitcher (Macrohamphus griseus), are well-known American species.

A fool; a blockhead. (R.)

Half snipe, the dunlin; the jacksnipe.

Jack snipe. See Jacksnipe.

Quail snipe. See under Quail.

Robin snipe, the knot.

Sea snipe. See in the Vocabulary.

Shore snipe, any sandpiper.

Snipe hawk, the marsh harrier. (Prov. Eng.)

Stone snipe, the tattler.

Summer snipe, the dunlin; the green and the common European sandpipers.

Winter snipe. See Rock snipe, under Rock.

Woodcock snipe, the great snipe.

verb

Snipe v. t.

To shoot at (detached men of an enemy's force) at long range, esp. when not in action.

To nose (a log) to make it drag or slip easily in skidding.

Snipe v. i. (past & past part. sniped; pres. part. sniping)

To shoot or hunt snipe.

To shoot at detached men of an enemy's forces at long range, esp. when not in action; often with at.

snipe at, to aim petty or snide criticisms at (a person) in his absence.

See images of 'Snipe'

Etymology of 'Snipe'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Snipe" Quotes from Famous Books

... that he's burning... Ah, it was this time last year that I met with that man Venn, bringing home Thomasin Yeobright—to be sure it was! Well, who would have thought that girl's troubles would have ended so well? What a snipe you were in that matter, Eustacia! Has your husband written ...

— The Return of the Native • Thomas Hardy

... young Christian" poker-player and red-light habitue has the supernal gall to ask us to make him lord over many things,—to accord him political promotion for dereliction of duty! In the name of Balaam's she-ass, does this snub-nosed little snipe suppose that we are all hopeless idiots? You are the state's hired hand, Charlie boy—duly employed to remain at Austin and display your anserine ignorance in the governor's office. The people don't care two whoops in hades what your "opinions" may be on any subject within the ...

— Volume 10 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann

... the ribbons going, if it suits you, and you can drive us back. I have an idea you will have the sharpest eye for game of any of this crowd. We ought to do our best work the next two hours for snipe. We probably won't find many prairie chickens until we get over on Little John. By the way, boys, be careful not to disturb the mother birds—there are still some on the nests. I really don't like to hunt quite so early in the season as this, although a good many of the young birds are shifting for ...

— Chicken Little Jane on the Big John • Lily Munsell Ritchie

... prey have also been the subjects of unremitting persecution. The eagles, larger hawks, and ravens, have disappeared from the more cultivated districts. The haunts of the mallard, the snipe, the redshank, and the bittern, have been drained equally with the summer dwellings of the lapwing and the curlew. But these species still linger in some portion of the British isles; whereas the large capercailzies, or wood grouse, formerly natives of the pine forests of Ireland ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. - Volume 19, No. 531, Saturday, January 28, 1832. • Various

... "Snipe, by all that's wonderful!" cried Bob, firing two barrels almost as he spoke, and bringing down four birds out of a flock that bore some resemblance to, but were ...

— Middy and Ensign • G. Manville Fenn

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