snipe

snipe pronunciation

/SNYPE/

Meaning

A snipe is a real long-billed bird that lives in wet fields and marshes, and some Southern hunters still go after them for real. In camp and porch talk, though, snipe usually means the mythical quarry in a snipe hunt. Somebody hands you a sack, walks you into the woods at night, and leaves you waiting for a bird that never shows. Classic rural initiation joke.

How folks use it

• “They took the new kid on a snipe hunt and left him holding the bag.”
• “Daddy said he'd shot real snipe in the marsh, not the fool's kind.”

Origin and etymology

The bird name is old English. The American snipe-hunt prank shows up by the mid-1800s: leave a newcomer in the dark with a bag while everyone else heads back to camp. Real Wilson's snipe winter in the Southeast, which makes the joke land harder. Folks who have never seen one still believe the tall description long enough to get stranded.

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