SNIPE
What does "SNIPE" mean?
A long-billed wading bird, or to shoot at people from a hidden position.
Meanings
- A wading bird with a long straight bill and camouflaged plumage, found in marshes. A snipe burst from the reeds in a zigzag flight.
- To shoot at exposed individuals from a concealed or distant position. Enemy soldiers sniped at anyone who crossed the open square.
- To make sly, critical, or carping remarks about someone. Online commenters sniped at the new policy from every angle. figurative
- To win an online auction by placing a bid in the final seconds. He sniped the rare card with two seconds left. informal
Did you know?
- A 'sniper' is named after a bird: British soldiers in 18th-century India who could hit the fast, zigzagging snipe were called snipers, and the term came to mean any expert concealed shooter.
Word origin
The bird name comes from Middle English 'snype', of Scandinavian origin; the verb 'snipe' (to shoot from hiding) and 'sniper' arose from the difficulty of shooting the fast, erratic-flying snipe bird.
Remember it
A SNIPE is hard to hit — so the hunter who could was a sniper. The bird gave the marksman his name.
A little poem
It breaks from reeds in a broken line,
drumming the air with a thrumming whine-
the bird that taught the gun to aim.
tercet
Wordplay
- The auction veteran and the marksman both swore by the same tactic: wait, then snipe.
What it teaches
Whatever is hardest to catch ends up teaching the catcher the most.
Quick facts
What does SNIPE mean?
A long-billed wading bird, or to shoot at people from a hidden position.
Is SNIPE a valid word?
Yes — SNIPE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is SNIPE?
SNIPE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does SNIPE come from?
The bird name comes from Middle English 'snype', of Scandinavian origin; the verb 'snipe' (to shoot from hiding) and 'sniper' arose from the difficulty of shooting the fast, erratic-flying snipe bird.
What can SNIPE teach us?
Whatever is hardest to catch ends up teaching the catcher the most.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.