snipe

noun (plural same or snipes)

• a wading bird of marshes and wet meadows, with brown camouflaged plumage, a long straight bill, and typically a drumming display flight.

  • Gallinago and other genera, family Scolopacidae: several species, e.g. the common snipe (G. gallinago)

verb

• 1shoot at someone from a hiding place, especially accurately and at long range:the soldiers in the trench sniped at us

• 2make a sly or petty verbal attack:the state governor constantly sniped at the president (as noun sniping)there has been some sniping about inept leadership

• 3 (often as noun sniping) (in an online auction) place a bid judged to be high enough to win an item just before the bidding is scheduled to close:sellers love sniping because it drives up prices I regularly snipe 10 to 5 seconds before the end of eBay auctions
• [with object] outbid (another bidder in an online auction) just before the bidding is scheduled to close:what is the point of sitting around for a seven-day auction when half the time you get sniped at the last second