Forms: 4–6 snype, 4, 6 snyppe (7 snippe), 6 sknipe, 7– snipe. [Of doubtful origin; the ME. type snīpe corresponds to a Scand. snīpa recorded in Icel. mýrisnípa, Norw. myr-, strandsnipa. It is not clear how this is related to MDu. snippe (Du. and WFris. snip), MLG. and LG. (also older Da.) snippe, G. dial. schnippe, and MDu. sneppe (Du. snep), MLG. and LG. sneppe (hence Da. sneppe, Sw. snäppa), OHG. snepha (snepfa) and snepho (G. schnepfe, obs. or dial. schneppe).]
1. One or other of the limicoline birds of the genus Gallinago (formerly included in the Linnæan genus Scolopax), characterized by having a long straight bill, and by frequenting marshy places; esp. G. cælestis or media, the common English species.
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 166. Un oysel ke est dist becaz, a snype (snyte).
c. 1350. Wynnere & Wastoure, 349. Barnakes and buturs and many billed snyppes.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 35. To wodcok, snype, curlue also, The betore in fere with hom schalle goo.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 461/2. Snype, or snyte, byrde, ibex.
1530. Palsgr., 272/1. Snyppe, a byrde, cigoigne.
1551. Sc. Acts, Mary (1814), II. 484/1. Item the snype and qualȝie,… ij d.
1565. Cooper, Gallinago, a wodcocke or a snype. Ibid., Rusticula minor, a sknipe.
1611. Cotgr., Beccassine,… a Snite, or Snipe.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 179. Where they perceive a Worm’s Hole, as I have seen Snipes to do, there they thrust in their Bill.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 33, ¶ 16. Went to the common-room, and supped on the snipes with Dr. Dry.
1794. Gisborne, Walks in Forest, vi. (1796), 104. The snipe flies screaming from the marshy verge.
1827. D. Johnson, Ind. Field Sports, 36. The Calcutta market is well supplied with … snipes.
1865. Tennyson, On a Mourner, ii. Nature … greens The swamp, where humm’d the dropping snipe.
b. With adjs., denoting species of this bird.
See also double snipe, GUTTER-, HALF-, JACK-, MIRE, WOOD-SNIPE.
a. 1705. Ray, Syn. (1713), 193. Gallinago Maderspatana,… the Partridge-Snipe.
1785. Pennant, Arct. Zool., II. 471. Finmark Snipe. Scolopax Gallinaria.
1813. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (ed. 4), II. 302. It is stated, that the Common Snipes never frequent woods.
1839. Audubon, Ornith. Biogr., V. 583. Common American Snipe, Scolopax Wilsoni.
1843. Yarrell, Brit. Birds, II. 621. Scolopax grisea, Brown Snipe.
1866. Chambers’s Encycl., VIII. 788/1. The Great Snipe, or Solitary Snipe (Scolopax or Gallinago major),… abounds in the extensive marshes of continental Europe.
c. Applied to various species of birds resembling the snipe. Chiefly with distinguishing epithets.
See also duck-snipe, JACK-SNIPE, painted, red-breasted, robin snipe, SEA-SNIPE, stone-, summer-snipe.
1785. Latham, Gen. Synop. Birds, III. I. 154. *Brown Snipe…. The head, neck, and scapulars, of a fine uniform cinereous brown.
1866. Chambers’s Encycl., VIII. 788/1. The Red-breasted Snipe, or Brown Snipe (Macrorhamphus griseus) of North America has been occasionally seen in Britain.
1785. Latham, Gen. Synop. Birds, III. I. 155. *Dusky snipe.
1829. Griffith, trans. Cuvier, VIII. 387. Red-shank, or *Gambet Snipe, Tringa Gambetta.
1887. Encycl. Brit., XXII. 200. The so-called *Pin-tailed Snipe Gallinago stenura.
1785. Pennant, Arct. Zool., II. 469. *Semipalmated … snipe…. With a bill two inches long.
1839. Audubon, Ornith. Biogr., V. 585. Semipalmated Snipe or Willet, Totanus semipalmatus.
1785. Latham, Gen. Synop. Birds, III. I. 148. *Spotted Snipe.
d. Without article, in collective sense.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, l. The delighted pointer would … dash forward to the well-known ‘bottoms’ in eager expectancy of ducks and snipe.
1845. J. Coulter, Adv. in Pacific, iii. 29. I have often seen flocks of snipe crossing the bay.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 249. In woodcock and true snipe the ear appears below and not behind the eye.
2. † a. The Egyptian ibis. Obs.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), II. 323. Bryddes callede snypes, odious to serpentes and amiable to men.
b. As a moth-name (see quot.).
1832. J. Rennie, Butterfl. & Moths, 66. The Snipe (Xylophasia scolopacina, Haworth) appears in June.
3. As an opprobrious or abusive term.
1604. Shaks., Oth., I. iii. 391. For I mine owne gain’d knowledge should prophane, if I would time expend with such [a] Snipe.
1730. Swift, Panegyric on the Dean, Misc. 1735, V. 133. Sir A—r, since you set the Pattern, No longer calls me Snipe and Slattern.
1896. Crockett, Grey Man, xii. 84. The Earl had set a little snipe of a raggetty loon to stir her up.
4. slang. a. pl. A pair of scissors.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Snipes, scissors.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, III. v. (1878), 200. No slour’d hoxter my snipes could stay.
b. (See quot.)
1864. Slang Dict., 238. Snipe, a long bill or account; also a term for attorneys—a race remarkable for their propensity to long bills.
5. ellipt. = SNIPE-BILL 1.
1873. Iron, 1 Feb., 78/2. Planes…. Side snipe, per pair, 7/-.
6. attrib. and Comb., as snipe-bog, -dust, -shooter, -shooting, -shot, etc.; also snipe-eel, (a) a species of fish belonging to the deep-sea family Nemichthyidæ; (b) the sea-pike or garfish, Belone vulgaris; snipe-fly (see quot.); snipe’s-head (see quots.); † snipe-knave, a half-snipe, jack-snipe; snipe-shell (see quot. and cf. SNIPE-BILL 2).
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., xi. The road across the marshes and *snipe-bogs.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, viii. 117. Those five miles of heather and snipe-bog.
1861. Times, 12 July, 12/3. Can there be a more potent proof that the white man has a right to sell and to own a creature who carries a smaller charge of *snipe dust in his head?
1882. Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis Fishes N. Amer., 365. Nemichthyidæ. (The *Snipe-Eels.)
1887. ‘J. Bickerdyke,’ Angling in Salt Water, 99. The Garfish,… Snipe Eel, or Sea Needle, is a long, slender fish [etc.].
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 6. One of the larger *snipe-flies, the Empis tesselata. Notwithstanding the long snipe-like tongue or proboscis of the highly predatory Empis [etc.].
1887. W. Rye, Norfolk Broads, 13. The finest *snipe ground in England.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 51/2. Species with a very long tube and without spines…. Example, Murex Haustellum (*Snipe’s or Woodcock’s head of collectors). [Cf. SNIPE-BILL 2.]
1889. Cent. Dict., Caput gallinaginis, the snipe’s head; the crista urethræ.
1590. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 60. Fourtene snypes and five *snype kneves xjd. Ibid., 61. Seventene snype kneves and foure snypes ixd.
1611. Cotgr., Deux pour vn, a Snipe-knaue; so called, because two of them are worth but one Snipe.
1889. Loudon’s Nat. Hist., 532. The *Snipe Shell (Murex haustellus, or cornutus), so called on account of the length of the prominency coming out of the shell.
1833. W. H. Maxwell, Field Book, 494/2. When these birds are very plenty, the *snipe-shooters never make use of a dog.
1860. All Year Round, No. 53. 66. The Analogist had the opportunity of studying the snipe-shooter of Albion.
1829. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 7. Are not such lies themselves … equal to *snipe-shooting?
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, iii. A fine, lonely, marshy, jungly district, famous for snipe-shooting.
1822. Sporting Mag., IX. 174. The best *snipe-shot complained that he had not killed more than sixty of these birds.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., ii. (ed. 3), 23. A gun loaded with a quantity of sand, equal in weight to a charge of snipe-shot, kicks still more.
1854. S. W. Baker, Rifle & Hound in Ceylon, vi. 156. Ye Gods! I had been firing snipe shot at him.
1805. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (ed. 3), II. 471. The *Snipe Tribe.
b. Forming adjs., as snipe-beaked, -faced, -nosed; snipe-like (also as adv.).
1812. Pennant’s Brit. Zool., III. 190. Trumpet Fish … [marg.] Snipe nosed.
1850. G. P. R. James, Old Oak Chest, III. 45. A little snipe-faced man.
1857. J. Miller, Alcohol (1858), 55. He who lives thus snipelike by suction.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 252. A very snipe-like bird.
1895. Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., IV. 494. Snipe-beaked sandpipers.
