[f. SNIPE sb. 1.]
1. trans. To shoot or fire at (men, etc.), one at a time, usu. from cover and at long range; to pick off (a person) in this manner. Also fig.
1782. G. Selwyn, Lett., in 15th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., VI. 621. Now people have been shot by platoons and in corps, the individual will be popped at or sniped, as they call it, from time to time.
1895. Edin. Rev., Jan., 14. The Indian soldier has been called upon … to be ‘sniped’ by fugitive dacoits.
1900. Daily News, 30 April, 5/4. The other positions were sniped.
2. intr. To fire as in snipe-shooting; to shoot at an enemy in this manner (cf. prec.). Also with at and away.
1832. Oriental Sporting Mag., May (1882), II. 291/2. They were all found among high cliffs, and we generally sniped at them from a considerable height.
1844. trans. Mir Hussain Ali’s Life Tipu, xiv. 179. The Kuzzaks … remained all night attacking, or sniping and throwing rockets into the English camp.
1897. Daily News, 4 Sept., 5/4. The enemy … ‘sniped’ away all day without effect.
1901. Times, 6 April, 3/1. After they left Ventersburg 300 Boers hung on the rear-guard, sniping, but refusing battle.
