From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsnipesnipe1 /snaɪp/ verb [intransitive] 1 PMWSHOOTto shoot from a hidden position at people who are not protectedsnipe at soldiers sniping at civilians2 CRITICIZEto criticize someone in a nasty waysnipe at His former associates have been sniping at him in the press. —sniping noun [uncountable]→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
snipe• None of those who sniped at his film career were ever to be so lasciviously tempted.• The attack grew so personal, in fact, that attorneys began sniping at one another in front of the jurors.• The young woman was sniping at the Counsellors.• The Vatican claimed that sniping over Jerusalem had barely ruffled the Pope's serenity.snipe at• Ranchers and activists have been sniping at each other about grazing on public lands.• At that time, guerrillas were beginning to snipe at travelers.snipesnipe2 noun [countable] HBBa bird with a very long thin beak that lives in wet areasExamples from the Corpus
snipe• Are your eyes crooked and your legs crossed that you zig-zag like a snipe?• This would deprive wading birds such as curlew and snipe of an ideal breeding sanctuary.• But Ann would not be plucking five hundred snipe carcases surely?• It was a jack snipe, bobbing rhythmically on green legs in the shallow water.• There can't be that number of snipe in the whole of Lewis let alone Barvas Estate, surely?• Waders - redshank, snipe, dunlin - probed in the wet mud.• In my mind I could almost hear the snipe whirling overhead on warm spring days in this, their prime habitat.Origin snipe2 (1300-1400) Probably from Old Norse snipa 