Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A skilled military shooter detailed to spot and pick off enemy soldiers from a concealed place.
  • noun One who shoots at other people from a concealed place.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who shoots snipe.
  • noun An irregular fighter; a sharp-shooter. See snipe, intransitive verb, 2.
  • noun A prospector.
  • noun One who noses logs before they are skidded. See nose, 5.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person who carries the professional title of sniper
  • noun A person using long-range small arms for precise attacks from a concealed position.
  • noun Any attacker using a non-contact weapon against a specific target from a concealed position.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a marksman who shoots at people from a concealed place

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

snipe +‎ -er

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word sniper.

Examples

  • And I think one of the reasons that the police are steadfastly avoiding the use of the term sniper is they don't want anyone to lock their mind into what they think a sniper is, and therefore, possibly not turn someone in to the police because he doesn't look like a sniper.

    CNN Transcript Dec 1, 2003 2003

  • COOPER: We are still, of course, comfortable using the term sniper for the shooting last night because we know the shots came from the wooded area.

    CNN Transcript Oct 20, 2002 2002

  • To the average western man, who has an aversion to what he considers unsportsmanlike conduct, merely the mention of the word sniper evokes an image of an evil little foreign man sneaking through the jungles of Okinawa picking off the good guys, or of a merciless Viet Cong hiding in a tree waiting for the opportunity to kill a 19-year-old GI from Des Moines or Wichita as he walks patrol at Nha Trang.

    ONE SHOT-ONE KILL CHARLES W. SASSER CRAIG ROBERTS 1990

  • Soldiers refused to allow people to pass by the site of the attacks, reporting a persistent stream of single gunshots in the area, which they described as sniper fire.

    Latest News - Yahoo!7 News 2010

  • So whilst I may make mistakes, and I am sure I will again at some point in the future, but I'd rather read another blogger like me who shows they are human, stands up to be counted and doesn't hide behind some electronic veil rather than be a sniper from the sidelines who offers nothing other than barbs and bile.

    So I made a mistake ... but it could be worse Norfolk Blogger 2009

  • It quickly emerged that lots of people knew Michael had been shot by a sniper from the Scots Guards, but no one had told the family.

    'My son was shot by a British sniper, now all I want is the truth' Jamie Doward 2010

  • The .308 was long used as the main sniper round in the U.S. military.

    Okay, I've heard nice things about all the rifles that I'm about to list. 2009

  • So whilst I may make mistakes, and I am sure I will again at some point in the future, but I'd rather read another blogger like me who shows they are human, stands up to be counted and doesn't hide behind some electronic veil rather than be a sniper from the sidelines who offers nothing other than barbs and bile.

    Archive 2009-03-01 Norfolk Blogger 2009

  • The .308 was long used as the main sniper round in the U.S. military.

    Okay, I've heard nice things about all the rifles that I'm about to list. 2009

  • It was a lone female cop that stopped the Ft Hood shooter; it was a deputy and a citizen that put an end to the UT Austin sniper; it was individuals that stopped AA 93 over PA and stopped the “underwear bomber”.

    Matthew Yglesias » The Conservative Terror Timeline 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.