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Oct 6, 2015
This week’s theme
Bird words

This week’s words
gannet
snipe
dodo
magpie
dotterel

snipe
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

snipe

PRONUNCIATION:
(snyp)

MEANING:
noun:
1. Any of various long-billed birds inhabiting marshy areas.
2. A shot from a concealed position.

verb intr.:
1. To shoot from a concealed position.
2. To criticize in a harsh and unfair way, especially anonymously.

ETYMOLOGY:
Probably of Scandinavian origin. The shooting sense comes from the practice of snipe hunting. Earliest documented use: 1325.

USAGE:
“When a Politico reporter asked last month how he endured constant sniping from his own party, Boehner said: ‘Garbage men get used to the smell of bad garbage. Prisoners learn how to become prisoners.’”
Doyle McManus; Boehner’s Happiest Moment; Los Angeles Times; Sep 27, 2015.

“A former Official IRA member described the attack as a reflex action: ‘Anybody who had planned a snipe from that position would have literally been taking his life in his hands.’”
Gary Kelly; Bloody Sunday Tribunal to Delay Legal Action Against McGuinness; Irish Examiner (Cork, Ireland); Nov 7, 2003.

See more usage examples of snipe in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't lost the things that money can't buy. -George H. Lorimer, editor (6 Oct 1867-1937)

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