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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".
Noun
snipe (pluralsnipesorsnipe)(Plural "snipe" is used only for the bird.)
1883, Charles Hallock, The Sportsman's Gazetteer and General Guide: The Game Animals, Bird and Fishes of North America; Their Habits and Various Methods of Capture, revised edition:
The pleasures of Bay bird shooting should not be spoken of in the same sentence with cocking or sniping.
(intransitive) To shoot at individuals from a concealed place.
I am the type who is liable to snipe you With two seconds left to go, whoa.
2005, Nancy Conner, eBay: The Missing Manual: The Missing Manual, O'Reilly Media, Inc., →ISBN, page 126:
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.
2007, Entrepreneur Press, Start Your Own Business on eBay: Your Step-By-Step Guide to Success, Entrepreneur Press, →ISBN, page 64:
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.
2008, Michael Miller, Absolute Beginner's Guide to EBay, Que Publishing, →ISBN, page 68:
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.
The breakthrough duly arrived after 35 minutes, an absolute beauty of a team goal scored by Lozano. First Khedira was robbed deep in the Mexico half. Hernández sniped away from Jérôme Boateng and Mats Hummels. A flurry of skimmed passes across the wide-open spaces of the Germany defence left Lozano in space in the area. With the stadium howling for him to shoot he cut inside Özil, who had tracked back to right-back, and buried the ball past Neuer.
An end of a log remaining after timber has been cut away - sometimes referred to as a snipe-end.
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 note or sticker attached to an existing poster to provide further information (e.g. an event is sold out), political criticism, etc.
1983, Joseph V. Melillo, Market the Arts!:
[R]egular campaign posters are easily adapted to the student market by sniping them. […] The student snipe should say something like, "FOR STUDENTS ONLY: 5 EVENTS FOR AS LITTLE AS $20.00!"
Verb
snipe (third-person singular simple presentsnipes, present participlesniping, simple past and past participlesniped)
(intransitive) To make malicious, underhand remarks or attacks.
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.”
(transitive) To attach a note or sticker to (an existing poster) to provide further information, political criticism, etc.
1983, Joseph V. Melillo, Market the Arts!:
Campus newspaper advertising rates are inexpensive, flyers can be simple because the ticket-price message is strong, and regular campaign posters are easily adapted to the student market by sniping them.
2018, Avram Finkelstein, After Silence: A History of AIDS Through Its Images, page 42:
At the time, a poster cost more to snipe than to print. The company quoted us $1.50 per poster, and made such a point of guaranteeing coverage, I decided to covertly follow one of their crews around one night to see for myself.
