Other forms: sniping, snips, sniped, snipped, snipping
To snip is to cut with one quick stroke of scissors. Snip it off, snip the thread, a quick snip.
It is small and single, which distinguishes it from cutting. As a noun, a snip is that cut, and in British informal use a snip is also a bargain: it was a snip at forty pounds. Snips, in the plural, are the heavy shears used to cut metal. Note snippet, meaning a small piece of information; and that the word is imitative of the sound scissors make.
1verbsnipTo cut with one quick stroke of scissors.
“She snipped the tag off her new dress with a pair of scissors.”
2nounbargainA bargain, informally.
“The jacket was a snip at half the usual price.”
snip is a quick cut, or a bargain.
Dutch snippen came into English through trade and is imitative of the sound. Snippet, snipe and snub belong to a family of words about small sharp actions, most of them coined by ear.
Low German
snippen — to snip; shred
Dutch
snippen — to snip; shred
English, today
snip
From Dutch snippen (“to snip; shred”) or Low German snippen (“to snip; shred”), of imitative of the sound origin. Compare snap.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA