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Snip vs Snipe - What's the difference?

snip | snipe |

As verbs the difference between snip and snipe

is that snip is to cut with short sharp actions, as with scissors while snipe is to hunt snipe.

As nouns the difference between snip and snipe

is that snip is the act of snipping; cutting a small amount off of something while snipe is any of various limicoline game birds of the genera Gallinago, Lymnocryptes and Coenocorypha in the family Scolopacidae, having a long, slender, nearly straight beak.

snip

English

Verb

(en-verb)
  • To cut with short sharp actions, as with scissors.
    • I don't want you to take much hair off; just snip my mullet off.
  • To reduce the price of a product, to create a snip.
  • To break off; to snatch away.
  • * Daniel Defoe
    • The captain seldom ordered anything out of the ship's stores but I snipped some of it for my own share.
  • (informal) To circumcise.
  • * 2001 , David Cohen, The Father's Book: Being a Good Dad in the 21st Century , John WIley & Sons Ltd (2001), ISBN 0470841338, page 72:
    • Circumcised fathers face a special problem. Do you want your son's willy to be that radically different from your own? So, parents should perhaps not be put off. Be good to your son's future lovers and have him snipped .
  • * 2008 , Ilene Schneider, Talk Dirty Yiddish: Beyond Drek: The Curses, Slang, and Street Lingo You Need to Know When You Speak Yiddish , Adams Media (2008), ISBN 9781598698565, page 150:
    • His children, however, were not snipped , possibly because Princess Diana was opposed to the practice, which is out of fashion in England.
  • * 2012 , Tom Hickman, God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis , Square Peg (2012), ISBN 9780224095532, page 144:
    • By the outbreak of the First World War such claims had diminished and the medical profession touted circumcision as being 'hygienic' — fathers were not only encouraged to have their newborn sons snipped , but to belatedly enjoy the benefits themselves.
  • *

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of snipping; cutting a small amount off of something.
  • Something acquired for a low price; a bargain.
    • That wholesale lot on eBay was a snip at $10
  • A small amount of something; a pinch.
  • A vasectomy.
  • A small or weak person, especially a young one.
  • * 2010 — Ellen Renner, Castle of Shadows , Hachette UK, 2010 ISBN 1408313723.
    • 'Might as well come out now, you little snip, from wherever you be hiding!'
  • (obsolete) A share or portion; a snack.
    • (rfquotek, L'Estrange)
  • (obsolete, slang) A tailor.
    • (Nares)
    (Charles Kingsley)

    Derived terms

    * snipper * snippy

    Anagrams

    * * * *

    snipe

    English

    (wikipedia snipe)

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) "type of bird", from (etyl) The verb originated in the 1770s among soldiers in British India where a hunter skilled enough to kill the elusive snipe'' was dubbed a "sniper". The term ''sniper was first attested in 1824 in the sense of the word "sharpshooter".'>citation

    Noun

    (en 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.
  • A fool; a blockhead.
  • *
  • A shot fired from a concealed place.
  • (naval slang) A member of the engineering department on a ship.
    • Derived terms
    * snipebill * snipefish * snipe hunt * snipelike

    See also

    * snipe hunt

    Verb

  • (lb) To hunt snipe.
  • *
  • (lb) To shoot at individuals from a concealed place.
  • (lb) (by extension) To shoot with a sniper rifle.
  • (lb) To watch a timed online auction and place a winning bid at the last possible moment.
    • Derived terms
    * sniper

    Etymology 2

    Probably from or a cognate

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (slang) A cigarette butt.
  • An animated promotional logo during a television show.
  • A strip of copy announcing some late breaking news or item of interest, typically placed in a print advertisement in such a way that it stands out from the ad.
  • A bottle of wine measuring 0.1875 liters, one fourth the volume of a standard bottle; a quarter bottle or piccolo.

    • Etymology 3

    Either from (m) or a figurative development from Etymology 1

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A sharp, clever answer; sarcasm.

    • Verb

    (en-verb)
  • (lb) To make malicious, underhand remarks or attacks.
  • * 2013 May 23, , " British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party," New York Times (retrieved 29 May 2013):
    • Capitalizing on the restive mood, Mr. Farage, the U.K. Independence Party leader, took out an advertisement in The Daily Telegraph this week inviting unhappy Tories to defect. In it Mr. Farage sniped that the Cameron government — made up disproportionately of career politicians who graduated from Eton and Oxbridge — was “run by a bunch of college kids, none of whom have ever had a proper job in their lives.”

    External links

    *

    Anagrams

    *

    References

    English nouns with irregular plurals