snipping

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snip

(snĭp)

v. snipped, snip·ping, snips

v.tr.

To cut, clip, or separate (something) with short, quick strokes.

v.intr.

To cut or clip with short, quick strokes.

1. An instance of snipping or the sound produced by snipping.

a. A small cut made with scissors or shears.

b. A small piece cut or clipped off.

c. A bit or scrap: snips of information about the merger.

3. Informal

a. One that is small or slight in size or stature.

b. A person regarded as impertinent or mischievous.

4. snips(used with a sing. or pl. verb) Hand shears used in cutting sheet metal.

5. Slang Something easily accomplished.

[Dutch or Low German snippen.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

snipping - a small piece of anything (especially a piece that has been snipped off)

snip, snippet

piece - a separate part of a whole; "an important piece of the evidence"

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References in classic literature ?

Mr Fledgeby's prepossessing form withdrew itself; and the little dressmaker, clipping and snipping and stitching, and stitching and snipping and clipping, fell to work at a great rate; musing and muttering all the time.

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She is probably a healthy, ruddy-cheeked young person who lives in the country, gets up to breakfast to pour out the coffee for some sort of a male relative, goes round the garden snipping off roses in big gloves and a huge basket, interviews the cook, orders the dinner, makes fancy waistcoats for her husband, and failing a sewing maid, does the mending for the family.

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When the faithful Lord Steyne arrived in the evening, he found Becky and her companion, who was no other than our friend Briggs, busy cutting, ripping, snipping, and tearing all sorts of black stuffs available for the melancholy occasion.

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As the height of luxury, Meg put out some of her sewing, and then found time hang so heavily that she fell to snipping and spoiling her clothes in her attempts to furbish them up a`la Moffat.

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Spaying or snipping also prevents some cancers, helps stop the spread of feline immunodeficiency virus and reduces straying, fighting and spraying.

Snip and chip cat for fiver

Thirty eight mercenaries were killed and injured in snipping operation in all internal and external fronts, said the official.

Dozens of Saudi-paid mercenaries killed, injured in offensive over 24 hours

"While it is not a crime to give someone a bad haircut, you will get arrested for intentionally snipping their ear with scissors," Despain said in a statement, the Miami Herald (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article191826079.html) reported.

Wisconsin Hairstylist Arrested For 'Bad Haircut,' Snipping Customer's Ear

NNA - A snipping rampage has flared up all across the fighting axes between Bab El-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen in Tripoli, National News Agency correspondent in Tripoli Abdel Karim Fayyad reported.