Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Sea snipe \Sea" snipe`\ (Zo["o]l.)
(a) A sandpiper, as the knot and dunlin.
(b) The bellows fish.
Snipe \Snipe\, n. [OE. snipe; akin to D. snep, snip, LG. sneppe,
snippe, G. schnepfe, Icel. sn[=i]pa (in comp.), Dan. sneppe,
Sw. sn["a]ppa a sanpiper, and possibly to E. snap. See
{Snap}, {Snaffle}.]
1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of limicoline game
birds of the family {Scolopacid[ae]}, having a long,
slender, nearly straight beak.
Note: The common, or whole, snipe ({Gallinago c[oe]lestis})
and the great, or double, snipe ({G. major}), are the
most important European species. The Wilson's snipe
({G. delicata}) (sometimes erroneously called English
snipe) and the gray snipe, or dowitcher ({Macrohamphus
griseus}), are well-known American species.
2. A fool; a blockhead. [R.] --Shak.
{Half snipe}, the dunlin; the jacksnipe.
{Jack snipe}. See {Jacksnipe}.
{Quail snipe}. See under {Quail}.
{Robin snipe}, the knot.
{Sea snipe}. See in the Vocabulary.
{Shore snipe}, any sandpiper.
{Snipe hawk}, the marsh harrier. [Prov. Eng.]
{Stone snipe}, the tattler.
{Summer snipe}, the dunlin; the green and the common European
sandpipers.
{Winter snipe}. See {Rock snipe}, under {Rock}.
{Woodcock snipe}, the great snipe.