[f. SNIPE v.]
1. The action of the verb.
1773. Let. fr. India, in J. W. Fortescue, Hist. Brit. Army, III. 141. [The soldiers … put their hats on the parapet for the enemy to shoot at, and] humorously called it sniping.
1891. A Forbes, in Daily News, 29 Dec., 2/1. The sniping of the outposts against each other.
1898. B. Burleigh, Sirdar & Khalifa, x. 162. Our camps upon the right bank of the Albara were exceptionally open to snipeing by night.
2. Snipe-shooting.
1875. Ibis, 15. The doctor … was not accustomed to sniping, and our bag was not so full at the end of the day as it might have been.
1877. Hallock, Sportsman’s Gaz., 174. The pleasures of Bay bird shooting should not be spoken of in the same sentence with cocking or sniping.
b. attrib. Engaged in snipe-shooting.
1840. E. Napier, Scenes & Sp. Foreign Lands, II. v. 142. Frequently the slaughter committed by a sniping party is so great, that … nothing but the brains and trail are eaten, the rest being cast away.
