snipe
/snaɪp/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.04 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "For I mine own gained knowledge should profane,/ If I would time expend with such a snipe,/ But for my sport and profit."
- "The pleasures of Bay bird shooting should not be spoken of in the same sentence with cocking or sniping."
- "I am the type who is liable to snipe you With two seconds left to go, whoa."
- "Tip: Adding a few cents to your maximum bid is particularly effective when you're sniping. (..) Last-second bidding is called sniping, and 15 percent of all eBay auctions are won within the last minute."
- "Sniping is the process of placing bids in the closing minutes or seconds of an auction. Snipers do this to avoid bidding wars that escalate the bids to more than they want to pay."
- "The successful sniper makes one bid only—and makes it count. Sniping happens on eBay because the end time of each auction is rigidly enforced. If you know that an auction ends at 12:01:30, you can time your snipe to hit at 12:01:29, leaving no time for any other bidders to trump your bid."
Etymology
From Middle English snipe, snype (“a type of bird”), from Old Norse snípa, as in mýrisnípa (“moor snipe”). Akin to Norwegian snipe. * The verb originated in the 1770s among soldiers in British India, where a hunter skilled enough to kill the elusive bird was dubbed a sniper. The term sniper was first attested in 1824, in the sense of sharpshooter.
Origin
- Source language: Middle English
- First known use: first attested in 1824
Word Breakdown
- Root: snipe, snípa