snipe

Etymology 1

From Middle English snipe, snype (a type of bird), from Old Norse snípa, as in mýrisnípa (“moor snipe”). Akin to Norwegian snipe. 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

1. Any of various limicoline game birds of the genera Gallinago, Lymnocryptes and Coenocorypha in the family Scolopacidae, having a long, slender, nearly straight beak.
2. A fool; a blockhead.
   For I mine own gained knowledge should profane,/ If I would time expend with such a snipe,/ But for my sport and profit. c. 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, act I, scene 3, line 390
3. A shot fired from a concealed place.
4. (naval slang) A member of the engineering department on a ship.
5. (ice hockey slang) A goal.

verb

1. (intransitive) To hunt snipe.
   The pleasures of Bay bird shooting should not be spoken of in the same sentence with cocking or sniping. 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
2. (intransitive) To shoot at individuals from a concealed place.
3. (intransitive, by extension) To shoot with a sniper rifle.
4. (transitive) To watch a timed online auction and place a winning bid against (the current high bidder) at the last possible moment.
   I am the type who is liable to snipe you With two seconds left to go, whoa. 2003, "Weird Al" Yankovic, eBay (song)
   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. 2005, Nancy Conner, eBay: The Missing Manual: The Missing Manual, O'Reilly Media, Inc., page 126
   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. 2007, Entrepreneur Press, Start Your Own Business on eBay: Your Step-By-Step Guide to Success, Entrepreneur Press, page 64
   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. 2008, Michael Miller, Absolute Beginner's Guide to EBay, Que Publishing, page 68
5. (transitive) To nose (a log) to make it drag or slip easily in skidding.
6. (ice hockey slang) To score a goal.
7. To move the ball quickly in a different direction.
   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. 17 June 2018, Barney Ronay, “Mexico’s Hirving Lozano stuns world champions Germany for brilliant win”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-08-05

Etymology 2

Probably from snip or a cognate

noun

1. (slang) A cigarette butt.
2. A end of a log remaining after timber has been cut away - sometimes referred to as a snipe-end.
3. An animated promotional logo during a television show.
4. 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.
5. A bottle of wine measuring 0.1875 liters, one fourth the volume of a standard bottle; a quarter bottle or piccolo.

Etymology 3

Either from sneap or a figurative development from Etymology 1

noun

1. A sharp, clever answer; sarcasm.
2. A note or sticker attached to an existing poster to provide further information (e.g. an event is sold out), political criticism, etc.
   [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!" 1983, Joseph V. Melillo, Market the Arts!

verb

1. (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.” May 23 2013, Sarah Lyall, “British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-05-29
2. (transitive) To attach a note or sticker to (an existing poster) to provide further information, political criticism, etc.
   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. 1983, Joseph V. Melillo, Market the Arts!
   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. 2018, Avram Finkelstein, After Silence: A History of AIDS Through Its Images, page 42